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^15

NO.i.^.O.OF R. M. DAWKINS' COLLECTION
OF BOOKS OF USE TO THE HOLDER OF

THE BYWATER AND SOTHEBY CHAIR
OF BYZANTINE AND MODERN GREEK
IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD

ILLYRIAN LETTERS

Heu micat Illyricatn perverso lumine sidus:
Turcaram referunt patria signa jugum ;

Quod prius impositum lunse, nunc comubus astrum.
Luna premit : tristes fata dedere vices.

Austriacae stellam, yictrices et sine Marte,
Restituant aquilae quo fuit ante polo !

ILLYRIAN LETTERS

I REVISED SKLECTION OF CORRESPONDENCE FROM THE ILLYRIAN

PROVINCES OF BOSNIA. HERZEGOVINA, HONTENEGRO, ALBANIA.

DALUATIA. CROATIA, AND SLAVONIA, ADDRESSED TO THE

'MANCHESTER GUARDIAN" DURING THE YEAR 1877

ARTHUR J. EVANS, B.A., F.S.A.

Mw a/ ' ramif* BpiKia and II

LONDON

LONGMANS. GREEN, AND CO.

1878

AU riikU T.ttntd

LONDON : PRIMTSD BY

SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NfiW-STRBBT SQUARE

AND PARLIAMENT STREET

<'U^;7>>

* The Inhabitants of any Country, who are descended and derive a
Title to their Estates from those who are subdued, and had a Govern-
ment forced on them against their free Consents, retain a Right to the
Possession of their Ancestors though they consent not hereby to the
Government^ whose hard Conditions were by Force imposed on the Pos-
sessors of that Country. For the first Conqueror never having had a
Title to the Land of that Country, the People who are the Descendants
of, or claim under, those who were forced to submit to the Yoke of a
Government by Constraint, have always a Right to shake it off, and
free themselves from the Usurpation or Tyranny which the Sword hath
brought in upon them, tiU their Rulers put them under a Frame of
Government as they willingly and of Choice consent to. Who doubts
but the Grecian Christians, Descendants of the ancient Possessors of
that Country, may justly cast off the Turkish Yoke which they have
so long groaned under whenever they have an Opportunity to do it ?
For no Government can have a Right to Obedience from a People who
have not freely consented to it ; which they can never be supposed to
do, till either they are put in a frill State of Liberty and choose their
own Government and Governors, or at least till they have such standing
Laws to which they have by themselves or their Representatives given
their free Consent, and also till they are allowed their due Property,
which is so to be Proprietors of what they have, that nobody can take
away any Part of it without their own Consent ; without which Men
under any Government are not in the State of Freemen, but are direct
Slaves under the Force of War.*

Locke, * Of Civil Government.*

PREFACE.

-•o*-

The small collection of letters now republished in
the present forni does not pretend to be a compre-
hensive history of recent events^ even so far as
concerns the western part of the Balkan Peninsula, or
what may fairly be comprised under the good old
term Illyria. It is nothing more than a representative
series of observations made in the lUyrian Provinces
during the troubled year 1877, throughout which I
corresponded, as occasion arose, with the 'Manchester
Guardian;

A previous acquaintance with those lands, some
account of which I have already given to the public
in my book on Bosnia, and a still earlier acquaintance
with their history had led me to conceive an extra-
ordinary interest in their condition, and I had accord-
ingly taken up my abode at Ragusa as a convenient
centre for working at the language and antiquities of
Illyria and the Leben und Treiben of her peoples.

viii PREFACE,

The exciting events of the hour, however, diverted
me from these more tranquil pursuits. The deplor-
able condition of Bosnia, the fiasco of the new
Constitution, the daily outrages committed by the
Irregulars, the unutterable misery of the Refugees, the
difficult problems suggested by the internal divisions
of the Province ; the Insurrection ; the life-and-death
struggle in Montenegro, the movement among the
neighbouring Slavonic Provinces of Austria-Hungary,
— these and other objects of urgent interest would
have been amply sufficient to exhaust the energy of
many chroniclers. But while the attention of Europe
was centred on the Bulgarian and Armenian battle-
fields these in many ways not less important fields of
contemplation were almost entirely neglected. While
journalists were drawn elsewhere, the temporizing
and immoral policy of Austria-Hungary exerted its
utmost to shroud the Bosnian Reign of Terror in a
veil of diplomatic silence : and false impressions of the
Province conceived within the walls of the English
Consulate distorted even the scanty information that
found its way into the blue-books of our Foreign Office.
Nothing could have been further from my object
than to act as a War Correspondent In so far indeed
as the guerilla operations of the Turks and insurgents
in Bosnia are concerned it would be a tedious and
unprofitable task, even if it were possible, to follow

PREFACE. is

them at length. I have therefore in the Letters now
re-published contented myself with introducing in a
tolerably peaceful fashion the Insurgents and their
little mountain territory to the English public, without
attempting in this place to follow the ups and downs
of the later course of the Insurrection. The war in
Montenegro, indeed, presents a series of more striking
pictures, and having been in the Principality at the
time of the critical struggle with the Turks, I thought
it might be to the convenience of my readers to sub-
join in the form of appendices to my letters a brief
r^sum^ of the chief events of the earlier periods of
the war ; while a prolonged stay at Nik§i<5 led me to
gather together some more minute details of its
capture. Happily, so far as Montenegro is concerned,
the world may expect a more exhaustive record from
a competent military critic, whom hardships and
difficulties greater than those of ordinary war could
not deter from following step by step the incidents of
that brave struggle. Mr. W. J. Stillman, the distin-
guished 'Times' Correspondent of whom I speak,
may indeed be said to have made the modern
history of Montenegro his own, and those who ven-
ture on his ground must perforce feel themselves to
be intruders.

It has been my own object to take a rather com-
prehensive view of all the Illyrian Provinces, and by

PREFACE,

extending my observations from the Save to Central
Albania to survey them from a variety of standpoints.
And in so doing I have not considered the* scenery
of those countries, their antiquities, and even the folk-
lore and domestic life of their peoples, beside my
purpose. I have often deliberately preferred to lead
up to political conclusions by such apparently indirect
channels. It is practically impossible to separate
peoples as primitive as the inhabitants of those lands
from their surroundings. Where man is ignorant,
Nature still is his mistress. The broad distinctions
between politics and the relations of domestic life that
exist among civilized nations are out there non-exis-
tent, and even the nymphs and dragons that haunt
the Bosnian caves and forests may, in their way, play
as real a part in the affairs of men as Insurgents or
Bashi-bazouks. Nor should any one who desires to
present the ' lUyrian Question ' adequately before the
world fail at least to touch upon the antiquities of
those historic lands, where the monuments of the Past
present the weightiest protest against Present ruin,
and form the true mirrors of the Future. My letter
about Durazzo is thus largely occupied by antiquarian
suggestions and historical reminiscences which point
their moral : yet, while glancing at these topics I have
purposely reserved for other occasions any disquisi-
tions that might be called archaeological.

PREFACE, xi

Thus it will be seen that my Letters are rather
side-lights on the Eastern Question than an attempt
to exhibit an act of the Russo-Turkish war. They
have, indeed, little to do either with Turks or Rus-
sians. In Bosnia, the province of the Ottoman
Empire with which I am chiefly concerned, even
among the native Mahometans there are, strictly
speaking, no Turks ; and, on the other hand, Russia
has deliberately resigned the province to the sphere
of Austrian Interests.

As far as I can see all that I have related in these
letters points to one conclusion, the conclusion typi-
fied in the heraldic device on the title-page, and ex-
plained by the Latin lines that I have ventured to
append to it,^ namely, that in the interests of the
populations that lie between the Save and Adriatic,
in the interests of the Hapsburg Monarchy itself, in
the interests of Europe and of humanity, Austria
should incorporate Bosnia in her dominions, and re-
store the lapsed suzerainty of the Hapsburgs over
the whole of lUyria. I do not love Austria, and I
cannot be said to have dealt too leniently with her in
the course of this book. I have been led to these
conclusions with great regret. But I confess that, so

^ The device on the Illyrian device, as every one is aware, is the
escutcheon previous to the Turkish same star to the right of the cres-
Conquest was an eight-rayed star cent. This ciurious heraldic coin-
above a crescent. The Turkish ddence suggested the epigram.

xu PREFACE.

far as I can see ahead, the extension of Austria to the
South and East, and the ultimate reconstitution of
the monarchy on an lUyrian or South Slavonic basis,
is the only consummation that can prevent Russia
from ultimately advancing to the shores of the
Adriatic.

CONTENTS.

LETTER I.

REFUGEE AND INSURGENT BOSNIA.

PACK

Impossibility of peaceful settlement in insurgent provinces. Extent of
Bosnian insurrection. Rdgn of Terror in country districts. A
quarter of a million refugees. Inadequacy of official relief. Cor-
ruption of ' patriots.' Miss Irby and Miss Johnston's work . i

LETTER II.

THE FUGITIVES IN THE CAVERNS.

My expedition to the Bosnian moimtains. Uz^latz and his merry
tales. Metropolitans and popes in Bosnia. A new St. George !
How the shepherd was shorn. Old La2ar. Illyrian winter-scenes.
A dance of death. The fugitives in the caverns. Representative
Government carried underground 7

LETTER IIL
AT INSURGENT HEAD-QUARTERS.

The Camp at Czemi Potuk The Insurgent commander, Colonel
Despotovi^ ; prevalent disaffection against him. Execution of a
Bosnian hero. Conversation with the Colonel. ' La Bosnie, c'est
moi.' A Mahometan Effendi. Polish of Mahometan Bosniacs.
Non-provincial character of Orthodox Church in Bosnia. Its in-
fluence in developing Serb nationality . z8

xiv CONTENTS.

LETTER IV.

THE CLOUDLANDS OF FRE£ BOSNIA.

PAGE

Extent of insurgent territory. Start to explore it. Turkish ravages.
Up Mount Duillitza. lUyrian 'poljes' or mountain plateaux.
Their value in defensive mountain warfare. Two more insurgent
camps. Entertained by Vojvode. Finer type of men in this part.
To what due. Monstrosities of barbarism. Old Castle of Aleksia.
On the track of the Bashi-bazouks. Massacre of Vidovos^lo.
Chasm of the Gudaja. Vale of Unnatz. Insurgent 'ch^ta.' A
Homeric evening 25

LETTER V.

FEUDAL CASTLES AND INSURGENT HUTS.

Old Castle of Vissovi6i Grad. In the Black Queen's dungeon.
Starving fugitives in the mountains. Two old women murdered
by Bashi-bazouks. The Vale of Unnatz. Remains of Roman
building and fine bas-relief of Mercury. A night with cows and
peasants. Bosnian idea of an antiquary. More havoc. Ruined
tower and monastery of Ermanja. A desecrated church. The fate
of three villages. In the Insurgent camp. Number of Insurgents
under Despotovid. Assembly of Vojvodes. Domestic arts and
refinement among rayahs. Confluence of Unna and Unnatz.
Attempt of Despotovid's myrmidons to murder Uz^latz . . .35

LETTER VI.

THE DEVASTATION OF BOSNIA AND MR. CONSUL HOLMES* REPORTS.

Discussion among Insurgent chiefs on the present crisis. Attacks
against our Consul, Mr. Holmes. Difficult position of the English
Consul at Serajevo. My protest against his reports. Mr. Holmes
accused of carrying false impressions as to the state of his Province
to the Conference at Constantinople. Uz^latz's report on the
devastation of Bosnia. Its accuracy so far as I have tested it.
Appalling extent of Turkish ravages in Bo^ia 45

CONTENTS. XT

LETTER VII.

HOW THE NEW CONSTITUTION WAS PROMULGATED IN BOSNIA.

PAGE

StiU subsisting ties between Mahometan and Christian Bosniacs. Ease
with which re-conversion takes place. Instance of Udbina. Sworn
brotherhood between Christians and Mahometans. Promulgation
of Constitution at Kulen Vakup. Style of new Constitutional Sove-
reign of Bosnia. 'Most comfortable words.' The seven subject
kings of Europe. Equality before the law at GradiSka. Forcible
conversion to Isl&m. How a Christian memorial was got up by a
Turkish Elfifendi. Different aspect of affairs in larger Herzegovinian
towns. Constitution not disagreeable to Osmanll bureaucracy. A
new form of electoral intimidation. Mahometan refugees at Ragusa. 50

LETTER VIII.

THROUGH THE LIKA.

Relief party of Miss Irby's waylaid by custom-house officials. Snowed-
up on Mount Velebid. A forest wrecked. Across the Lika.
The Waters of Knowledge. Ancient castles and dragon rock.
Udbina. Relics of Mahometan times. 'Bajazet's grave.' The
silent forces at work in favour of South Slavonic unity. Isolation
of Catholic Croats and their artificial nationality. Austro-Hun-
garian subjects looking towards Montenegro. Final solution of
the Elastern Question postponed. Impossibility of Montenegro be-
coming nucleus of South Slavonic State. Will Austria? . . 58

LETTER IX.

ON THE SCENE OP TURKISH OUTRAGES.

Resolution to examine personally into recent outrages committed by
the Turks in Southern Bosnia. A difficult journey. Forced to
swim the Unnatz. The ashes of Great and Little O^ievo. Savage
havoc. * The Turks ! the Turks I ' Two days of murder and rapine.
Ahouse-commimity of fugitives. Murder of Stephen Rodid. Ex-
amination of a little maiden. Massacre at Klekovatza. Fate of the
women. The only remedy, — ^Austrian occupation . . . .71

NOTE.
THE BRITISH FOREIGN OFPICE AND THE OUTRAGES IN BOSNIA. . 84

xvi CONTENTS,

LETTER X.

INTERVIEWS WITH THE BOSNIAN BEGS.

PAGE

Resolve to obtain views on present situation from leading Begs of
Bosnia. Their head-quarters, Kulen Vakup, a nest of fanaticism.
Necessary precautions. I receive a letter addressed to the Czar of
England, to the King of Ent^land, and the Ambassador of two Empires.
On the way: dreams and omens. Encounter an armed fanatic.
Received by Turks with ovation. Grant an audience to Bosnian
Begs. Their irreconcilable attitude towards their rayah serfs.
Necessity of 'force majeure' in Bosnia. Whence is it to come?
Not from the Osmanll. The Osmanlis in Bosnia allied, on confes-
sion of Mahometans themselves, with most fanatic among the Begs.
Austrian occupation the only application of 'force majeure' ¥dthin
the sphere of practical politics. Probable effects of Christian
Gk>vemment on Bosnia. Probability that Isldm will yield there to
Western Civilization and its allied Religion. Mahometan oracle at
Kulen Vakup. Pythonesses and holy stones. Great seclusion of
women there . 9^

LETTER XI.

FREE BOSNIA REVISITED. (l.)

The present insurrection justified by historic precedents. Croatian and
Dalmatian districts liberated in this and preceding, centuries by in-
surgent Ch^tas. Instance of Lapatz. In Insurgent territory once
more. Marvellous source of the Kerka. Insurgent peak-stronghold
of Semnitza Grad. Entertained by Vojvode Paulo Vukanovid
His views on the insurrection. Necessity of an alliance with the
moderate part of the Mahometan population against the most
tyrannous Begs and Turkish officials. Negotiations with native
Mahometans thwarted by the Osmanlis. 'Post' and 'telegraphs'
in insurgent district in

LETTER XII.

FREE BOSNIA REVISITED. (ll.)

Athletic sports among the Insurgents. Croatian cricket. A miserable
night. A ruined king's highway. King Bela's treasure and the

CONTENTS, xvii

PAGE

dragon Princess. Reflections on material ruin of Bosnia under the
Turks. Is Mahometanism to blame? The question not one of
Religion but of Civilization. The 'Vila' or Slavonic nymph
haunting Resanovce Cave. Survival of heathen superstitions
among Bosnian Slavs, a connecting link between contending creeds. 122

LETTER XIII.

ALBANIA AND THE EASTERN KEY OF THE ADRIATIC.

Visit to Albania and Durazzo. Importance of Durazzo in past ages.
As a Turkish town. Moniunents of ancient splendour and modem
degradation. Flotsam and jetsam of antiquity. Reflections sug-
gested by present state of Dyrrhachium. Contrast between Turkish
administration and lively spirit of Albanians. The Highlanders of
Turkey. Tosks and Gheggas and then* respective Greek and
Montenegrin aflinities. The Miridites. Possibilities of Italian
Protectorate in Albania. Pessimist views of situation there among
Turkish employes. Preparations of Greek Committees for revolt in
Epirus. The Mahometan population biding its time . . • 131

LETTER XIV.

THE REIGN OF TERROR IN BOSNIA.

Arrival of fresh fugitives from Turkish Bosnia. My expedition to visit
them. Kamen, their glen of refuge. Fearful mortality amongst
the fugitives. Austrian shortcomings. Perishing children. Extra-
ordinary quickness of Bosnian and Herzegovinian children in Miss
Irby's and Ragusan Committee's schools. 'The Slavonic dawn.'
The latest victims of the Turk. Cause of the fresh exodus. Results
of Mr. Consul Holmes' exhortations to the Vali. Mahometan
'order.' Examination of the victims. Twenty-six villagers driven
off to Turkish dungeons and never heard of since. Secret assassi-
nation of Christian prisoners in the dungeons of Derbend. Thir-
teen peasants massacred at Stekerovatz. Two relics of tyranny.
The ' Nadjak ' of the Bosnian Begs and its uses. An instance of
atrocious oppression . 143

xviii CONTENTS.

NOTE.

A SHORT REVIEW OF THE WAR IN MONTENEGRO

PAGE

From the expiration of the armistice and the triple invasion of the
Principality to the final evacuation of the Montenegrin soil by
the Turkish armies 154

LETTER XV.

PEACEFUL SKETCHES OF MONTENEGRO IN WAR TIME,
(l,) FROM CATTARO TO CETTINJE.

From Cattaro to Cettinje. Contrast between the Bocche and the Black
Mountain. Montenegrin 'transport service,' A death-wail for the
heroes of Kristatz. Montenegrin wounded. The burden of war in
Montenegro. Ninety thousand refugees, NieguS, the cradle of
the dynasty. Reminiscences of Lapland. Montenegro cut off from
the sea. Cattaro taken from our th^n allies, the Montenegrins, by
English Diplomacy 165

LETTER XVI.

PEACEFUL SKETCHES OP MONTENEGRO IN WAR TIME.
(11.) IN THE VILLAGE CAPITAL.

Immense tax of war on male population of the Principality. Marvel-
lous carrying power of the women. Th^ queenliness. The
Princess and Princely Family of Montenegro. The Elders of the
People. A Captain of a Montenegrin Nahia. Dislike of the
Russians in Montenegro. Conversations with wounded heroes . 171

LETTER XVII.

THE FALL OP NIK§ld

VCTelcomeacoesaoa of strength to Montenegrin artillery. Four Russian
guns landed at Austrian port and carried off by Montenegrins.
Turks ask for truce. Renewal of hostilities. Storming of Petroya

CONTENTS, xix

PAGE

GIavitz£^. Homeric incidents— jeering, songs, and 'gestes'ofheroes.
A single combat. Final assai^t on Niklid. Terms of capitulation
granted. Admirable defence of Turkish Commandant. Importance
of NikSid to Montenegro : a Key to the Principality hitherto in
Turkish hands. Previous attempts of Montenegrins to capture it.
NikSi^, formerly Onogost, an Imperial City of Servian Czars. Last
Diet of Servian Empire here 176

LETTER XVIII.

A WAR-DANCE AT CETTINJE.

Prince Nikola announces the fall of NikSid in a poetic telegram to
the Princess. Announcement of the tidings by the Princess to the
people. Ecstatic rejoicings. War-dance before the Palace at night.
Montenegrin Court ladies dancing ^th the warriors. Epic min-
strelsy. The 'Green Apple-tree' song, 'Out thefe, out there —
beyond the mountains ' 185

•

LETTER XIX.

NIKSid IN MONTENEGRIN HANDS. (l.) EXODUS OF
MAHOMETAN POPtTLATION.

Exodus of Mahometan population in spite of Prince Nikola's assur-
ances. Refusal of Turks to accept equality before the law. Obvious
advantages to Montenegro of Mahometan emigration. The Mon-
tenegrin ' Vespers.' Transfonnation of Asia into Europe. Artistic
regrets. Niklid and its Plain indispensable to the Principality.
Good conduct of Montenegrins since the capture. Turics and
Christians fraternizing. Calumnioiis tales of Montenegrin atrocity
circulated Sn European papers. Ftank confession of a fanatic . 193

LETTER XX.

NIKSid IN MONTENEGRIN HANDS. (ll.) THE TOWN AFTER

THE »EGE.

The effects of the bombardment Roman aspects of the town. Pkioba-

^ bility that a Roman dty existed on NikSid Plain. Old Serbian

survivals in KikSid architecture. Tombs of old Serbian heroes. In

XX CONTENTS,

PAGE

the Turkish citadel. The 'black hole' of NikSid Use of buUets
by j[arrison productive of fearful lacerated wounds. Reflections on
the Montenegrin Conquest 201

NOTE.

THE MONTENEGRIN CAMPAIGN IN HERZEGOVINA . . 208

LETTER XXI.

THE HOPE OF BOSNIA : MISS IRBY AND MISS JOHNSTON'S CHILDREN.

Terrible destitution of the Bosnian refugees on the Croatian and Sla-
vonian border. Children turned idiots through want and misery.
Death-rate among the refugees. Fifty-two thousand starved to
death on Christian soil. Miss Irby and Miss Johnston's schools for
the refugee children. The Serbian 'Preparandija.' A visit to the
refugee schools. Quickness of the children. Curious uniformity of
type among them — a Slavonic characteristic. The true hope of
Bosnia 216

APPENDIX TO LETTER XXI.

Virtual suppression of the Refugee Schools by the new Governor of the
Croatian Military Frontier 229

LETTER XXII.

POLITICS AMONG THE BOSNIAN BEGS.

Silent Revolution in Bosnia. Bosnia at present neither Ottoman nor
Christian. Omar Pasha's re-conquest of the Province for Osmanli
bureaucracy undone. The native Mahometan nobility again in a
dominant position. Two parties among the Bosnian B^[5. The
Old Bosnian party and its aims. Its leader — Fdm Efiendi, his
history and oppression of the rayah. His tool the Dervish. Tor-
tures applied to rayahs. The Moderate party among the Begs.
Their more conciliatory attitude towards Serbian element. Their
repugnance to Austrian occupation. Tendency among Bosnian
Mahometans to return to Christianity. Recent examples of this.
Resolution of All Beg Djinid to return with his whole family to the
religion held by his forefathers before the Tiu*kish Conquest . .^31

CONTENTS. xxi

LETTER XXIII.

A BOHEMIAN STATESMAN ON THE EASTERN CRISIS AND

THE FUTURE OF ILLYRIA.

PAGE

Prerogative position of Chesks among Southern Slavs. Conversation
with a Bohemian statesman. His views on an Austrian annexation
of Bosnia. Austria and the Slavs. The attitude of Bohemia. My
reasons for wishing to see Illyria re-united under one sceptre, and
for Austro-Hungary to be merged in it. Desirableness of an
autonomous Bulgaria. A Cheskian re-settlement of the Balkan
Peninsula. Anglo-Austrian alliance criticised. A Bohemian view
of the Magyars . . 245

IVfAPS.

Western Illyria . • To face page vii

Southern Bosnia ,, ,, i

Montenegro and adjacent Austrian and Turkish

Territory 154

KEY TO THE PRONUNCIATION

of the Serbo-Croatian Orthography adopted for Illyrian nanus

in this book.

^' L^ttS*'**" Approximate Sound.

(5 =1 like ch or cs^ before a vowel ty

I, = German tsch

j = y

Ij B Italian gl

nj a Italian gn

i =■ like j^

n's

ILLYRIAN LETTERS.

LETTER I.

REFUGEE AND INSURGENT BOSNIA.

ImpossiHlHy of peaceful settlement in insurgent provinces. Extent of
Bosnian insurrection. Reign of terror in country districts. A
. quarter of a million refugees. Inadequacy of official relief. Corrup-
tion of * patriots* Miss Irhy and Miss yohnsion's work,

Knin (on the Dalmatian-Bosnian Frontier), February 8, 1877.

HERE seems to be a general impression in Eng-
land that though the Conference has ended in
smoke, matters are much smoother now than
they were a few months ago. Russia, we are
told, will only bluster and threaten a bit; Serbia is already
negotiating terms ; and as to Bosnia and Bulgaria —
after all, what is the lot of the Christian inhabitants of
Turkey when weighed against the peace of Europe ? The
oil of diplomacy has been poured upon the troubled
waters, and somehow (a ^arrangera. The refugees will
return ; the insurgents will see the propriety of lajdng
down their arms the instant that Russia fails them ; and
as to the condition of the rayah, well, we must trust to the
good sense of the Turks to * ameliorate ' it themselves.
Now I do not profess to be in the confidence either

LETTER
I.

Extraordi'
nary mis-
conceptions
in England
as to situa-
tion.

REFUGEE AND INSURGENT BOSNIA.

LETTER
I.

The Bos-
nian refu-
gees wUl
not return*

The in-
surgents
will not lay
down their
arms.

The new
ConstitU"
tion still-
bom in
Bosnia,

of Russia or the Principalities, but so far as the Bosnian
refugees and the Bosnian insurgents are concerned, and
I may add the Bosnian Mahometans, I have set myself
to examine personally the true state of affairs, and in the
course of a somewhat difficult journey have seen and
heard enough to open the eyes of those who indulge in
these comfortable speculations. I will even venture to
assert that so far as concerns those very countries where
the present troubles originated, the prospect of a settle-
ment was never more remote than it is at present.

The refugees, driven forth from Bosnia by deeds of
savagery (which, though unreported by English news-
papers, almost surpass the horrors of Bulgaria), are dying
by tens and hundreds, starved and frozen in the inhospi-
table gorges of the Dinaric Alps \ but they will not return.

The Bosnian insurgents hold already in their posses-
sion mountain strongholds, embracing over i,ooo square
miles, are fairly armed, and, as I believe, capable not
only of holding their own without foreign assistance, but
ultimately, perhaps, unless thwarted by foreign interven-
tion, of forming a new free State— a little Bosnian Mon-
tenegro — in the north-western angle of the province.

Finally, as to Turkish promises and paper constitu-
tions, the fall of Midhat will have already prepared your
readers for the intelligence that the Turkish Government
has not dared to promulgate the new Constitution in
Bosnia in the native language, and that, so far at least as
Western Bosnia is concerned, the Government of
Stamboul has practically ceased to exist. The country
not in the hands of the insurgents is terrorized over by
the dominant caste of native Mahometan fanatics, the
begs and agas, and their (in Bosnia still half-feudal) train
of murderous Bashi-Bazouks, who have cast off the last

THE REICN OF TERROR.

semblance of obedience to the Central Government In
the country about Travnikand Banjaluka, the worst horrors
of Bulgaria are repeating themselves at this very moment.
I have before me the following details from a source
on which you may absolutely rely. The outbiurst of
fanaticism at present desolating that already desolated
part of Bosnia, had its origin among the dregs of the
Mahometan population of Travnik, the ex-capital of this
country. One gang of these ruffians numbering about
a hundred made its way to Banjaluka, and since the end
of last month robber bands of these fanatics have been
making inroads into the Christian villages whose inhabi-
tants had not fled the country. As to the number of
persons actually murdered, it is impossible at present to
obtain exact details. In a single village, however — Zupa,
by Banjaluka — there were six such assassinations ; many
have been cruelly beaten, and other outrages have been
committed of which I cannot write. The worst is, that
in the depths of winter a large and peaceful population
have been scared from their homes, and are eidier hiding
in the forests or have crossed the frontier. The
Agram papers raise the number of this fresh exodus of
refugees to S,ooo, but this is probably an exaggeration,
and I have been careful to accept nothing on the authority
of Croatian or Dalmatian journals. The fact which I
wish to impress upon my readers is that, so far from
the refugees returning to their burnt homes, their numbers
are rather augmenting ; and even while I write this, news
reaches me of fresh' arrivals of refugees at this place from
GlamoS ; these, however, on their own shjowing, were
driven forth by no particular act of barbarity, but simply
by hunger and misery.

The total number of the refugees amounts* present to

LETTER
I.

Reign of
Terror in
Bosnian
country
districts.

Fresh

arrivals of
rayah
fugitives.

A QUARTER OF A MILLION REFUGEES.

LETTER
I.

A quarter
of a milium
refugees.

Inadequacy
of Aus-
trian
relief.

about a quarter of a million, some of whom are at present
in Serbia, some in Montenegro, and the rest in the
Austro-Hungarian provinces of Dalmatia, Croatia, and
Slavonia. Of those here in Dalmatia the last official
account gives the following number : — In the district of
Bencovatz, 1,779; o^ Sebenico, 13; of Knin, 10,490;
Curzola, 4; Ragusa, 17,094; Cattaro, 2,200; Sinj, 2,300;
Macarsca, 300. The real numbers, however, will be
found considerably to exceed these figures. The Austrian
authorities have refused to register many who live too
near the Bosnian firontier ; others, but a very small
minority, have means of their own ; and others again
have been supported by friends across the border. The
two English ladies — Miss A. P. Irby and Miss Johnston,
who, in pursuance of their great work of relief, have
stationed themselves here at Knin, as the head-quarters
of human misery — ^have the best reasons for believing that,
so fcir as this district is concerned, 12,000 would be nearer
the mark ; while if the fugitives in the mountains on the
other side of the border be reckoned, the numbers in this
neighbourhood would be raised to nearer 1 7,000.

The Austrian Government professes to give ten
kreutzers daily, or rather less than twopence, to every
adult, and half that amount to children ; but, as I have
already intimated, many in the more remote and moun-
tainous districts receive nothing at all ; and even where
it is given, I am sorry to be obliged to add that even this
pittance is cut down by the villany and corruption of the
official imderlings who distribute it, ^o that many adults
have received no more than three kreutzers a day. If
we remember the past history of Knin, the centre of a
wild Morlach population — ^robbers driven seawards from
the interior, pirates driven inland from the sea, repressed

CORRUPTION OF KNIN * COMITATO,'

and corrupted later by Turkish, Venetian, and Austrian
despotism — it is the less to be wondered at that though
the population of this place have many amiable charac-
teristics — as what Dalmatian has not ? — truth and honesty
are not to be reckoned among their conspicuous virtues.
The history of the Comitato^ formed here professedly to
aid the oppressed rayahs beyond, and the refugees on
this side of, the border, is a history of peculation and
intrigue. The 'patriots' are quite as corrupt as the
officials, and sums collected in Serbia and elsewhere to
aid the refugees have been perverted to very different
purposes by men in whom the old predatory instincts of
the Morladi and the super-subtlety of the Venetian are
perpetually triumphing over all nobler impulses. I could
point to men here who have grown rich on the misfor-
tunes of those they professed to aid. I may have to
allude to still blacker charges ; and, indeed, it adds not
a little to the difficulty of one's position here, that one is
forced to refuse the Dalmatian kiss of peace from thieves
and even would-be murderers.

Private charity and official relief having in this district
fallen into such hands, the state of the refugees has been
most deplorable. Small-pox and famine-typhus have
wrought terrible ravages among the weaker portion of
these unfortunates ; and though the disease has now
somewhat abated since October last, over 2,000 have
died in this district alone. The arrival of the two
English ladies has been, indeed, a godsend to the
Bosnians in this part. In Slavonia and Croatia they
have been working over a year, and besides distributing
enormous supplies of food and clothing, they have
founded eighteen ^ day schools, where , the destitute

' Now (January 1878) twenty-two.

LETTER
I.

Corruption
of Knin
'Comitato,'

Miss Irby
and Miss
Johnston's
work.

MISS IRBY AND MISS JOHNSTON'S WORK.

LETTER

Miss Irby
and Miss
Johnston's
work.

children have been both fed and taught. Smce their
arrival here their energy has been unflagging ; they have
performed long and weary journeys in the rough carts of
this country to seek out those who stood most in need of
help ; and besides distributing Indian corn and blankets
and clothing in the most judicious and methodical
manner, they have had the satisfaction of setting on foot
a new school for refugee children at Plavno, about two and
a half hours' drive from here. They are also carrying
out an admirable plan — much appreciated by the
Bosnians — of providing the women with flax to make
their own clothes. By the local committee their pro-
ceedings are viewed with characteristic jealousy, but by
the simple Bosnians they are held in a kind of veneration,
and natives have come from afar to see the two English
queens — * Kralitzas,' as they call them. Great, however,
as their exertions have been, the need here is scarcely to
be measured in words, and there are districts among the
mountains where no one has yet penetrated, and where
the distress is still more awful.

LETTER 11.

THE FUGITIVES IN THi: CAVERNS.

My expedition to the Bosnian movntains, Uzilatz and his merry tales.

Metropolitans and popes in Bosnia, A new St. George I How the

shepherd was shorn. Old Laxar. Illyrian winter-scenes. A dance

of death. The fugitives in the caverns. Representative Government

carried underground.

Bosnian Border, February 9.

N order to explore some of the more inaccessible
haunts of misery, as well as to obtain a per-
sonal acquaintance with the position and pro-
spects of the Bosnian insurgents, I set forth on
an expedition among the wild and snow-capped highlands
of the Dinaric Alps that lie beyond what is still known
as the Turkish frontier.

I left Knin under very good auspices, in company
with a native gentleman who has been doing his best to
help the two English ladies in their difficult work of
relief. Uzilatz, of whom I speak, was bom of Bosnian
parents, though on Dalmatian soil, and, though a man of
culture and independent means, took the command of
the insurgents of this part of Bosnia during the first year
of the revolt. During his year of leadership he gained
several important successes against the Turks, and there
can be little doubt that, had he remained in command,
the insurgents would at present be in possession of a
larger area of country. He was, however, wounded, and
forced by reasons of health, as well as by the intrigues of

LETTER
II.

Start on
expedition.

UMilatx.

UZELATZ AND HIS MERRY TALES.

LETTER
II.

Uzilatx.

His tole-
rant attu
tude to-
wards Ma-
hometans,

Corruption
of Orthodox
hierarchy.

the Comitato, to give up his command, which was taken
up in turn by a brave but illiterate Bosnian, the Vojvode
Golub, and finally by the Serbian Colonel Despotovic,
who at present commands. Like the other few honest
men in Knin, Uzdatz has been forced by the transactions
of the Cbmitato to hold himself aloof from it ; but he
has not ceased to do all in his power for the unfortunate
.Bosnians, and his intimate acquaintance with the country
and exhaustive information on all the present phases of
Bosnian history, qualify him to speak on these subjects
with some authority. It is much to his credit that,
S3anpathising as he does with the present movement, his
feelings are absolutely untinged with religious fanaticism.
Dining the year of his command he did all in his power
to conciliate the native Slavonic Mahometans of Bosnia,
and with some partial success — ^nay, he carries his
religious indifiference so far that he has more than once
exclaimed in my hearing, ' Oh, if the Christians of
Bosnia would only turn Mahometans, that would be
better than these miserable feuds.'

As to priests— even of the Pravoslav or Orthodox
profession — the ex-insurgent leader had a most whole-
some and cordial aversion to them : indeed, one of the
chief grievances of the rayah is the state to which the
Turks have succeeded in reducing the Pravoslav Church
in the province. The Metropolitan at Serajevo and the
Eparchs buy their offices from that faithful servant and
nominee of the Divan, the ' Greek ' Patriarch at Stam-
boul, and the single idea of the new * Spiritual Pasha,' on
his arrival amongst his flock, being how to make the
speculation pay, the state to which the inferior clergy
are reduced may faintly be imagined. The more igno-
rant the village popes are, the less capable are they of

A BACCHANAUAN BISHOP.

withstanding the exactions of their superior ; so their
spiritual overseer resigns them to their pristine state of
ignorance, and is rather pleased than otherwise when he
finds a priest who cannot read the liturgy ! * None of
your new-fangled heretical learning for me/ remarks the
fat Metropolitan as he pockets the fees, which the
wretched village priest has had in his tium to screw out
of his congregation. But the Fanariote hierarchy, I am
happy to say, has ratlier over-reached itself here, as it did
in Bulgaria ; the yoke of the foreign Turcophile bishops
has tepded very strongly to knit together the village popes
and their flocks in a common opposition, and has only
brought out the more that democratic spirit always so
strong in the lower grades of the Orthodox Church, and
itself a still surviving influence of the old Greek republics,
just as Roman Catholic centralisation perpetuates the
organization of the fourth century Empire.

Uzdlatz whiled away our journey by telling me many
merry tales about village popes and the Fanariote
bishops, one or two quite worthy of Boccaccio. A late
Metropolitan, who rejoiced in the curiously appropriate
name of Dionysos, for he was of a Bacchanalian turn,
used to find it profitable to take with him on his visita-
tions a goodly assortment of ' icons,' which he disposed
of to the faithful at prices varying firom a ducat apiece,
the episcopal benediction being thrown into the bargain.
As, however, Dionysos added gambling to his numerous
accomplishments, and as indeed he did succeed on one
occasion in * rooking * one of his brother bishops of a
considerable sum, we need not be surprised if the vene-
rable Metropolitan, in addition to the holy images, some-
times added to his luggage a pack of cards. Now it so
chanced that, having on one occasion driven a more

LETTER
II.

The

Spiritual
Pashas oj
Bosnia,

A Baccha-
nalian
bishop.

A NEIV ST. GEORGE!

LETTER
II.

A pious
fraud.

An ava-
ricious
*pope:

than usually profitable trade in icons, the bishop was
asked by a pious rayah whether he had yet an image of
St. George for sale. The Metropolitan looked into his
bag, there was not so much as an icon to be seen ; he
fumbled among his vestments — anathema ! he must have
sold them out ; but here his eye rested on a familiar piece
of pasteboard — it was a happy thought ! . . . Do my
readers know the Venetian cards in use in these regions ?
— ^probably not ... * Yes,' replied the bishop, * I have
yet an image of the holy St. George, but indeed it is an
image of such great price that it were sacrilege to part
with it.' * Your grace,' said the man, * I will give ten
grosch for such an image.' *Ten grosch for such an
icon ! ' quoth the holy man, * I would not part with it
for less than half a ducat.' The poor man reluctantly
handed the coin to the Metropolitan and went away
rejoicing, with the king of spades in his wallet ! They
say that after the success of this first experiment the
bishop made the pleasing discovery that if a queen of
hearts were passed for Our Lady, or knaves were chris-
tened angels, heaven might yet smile upon the pious
fraud. Of the whole story I will say, Se turn h vero I
ben trovato!

Uz^latz told me that when he was an insurgent
leader he was resting one day in a small Bosnian hut,
divided into two rooms by a small partition, and two
priests, who did not know that he was there, were
drinking in the further compartment Suddenly a Bos-
nian woman came in in a great hurry : * Your Reverence,
my father is dying, and needs your comfort ; pray make
haste or it will be too late !' * Oh ! I can't be boUiered ! '
said the pope addressed. * 111 come,' said the other, * if
you'll give me a ducat' * We are very poor, your Reve-

AN A VARICIOUS POPE,

rence — we have not so much in the house. Here are
three grosch, only pray be quick ! ' * But youVe got coins
enough on your dress/ was the brutal rejoinder (the
Bosnian women adorn their fez and breast )vith Turkish
paras) : 'just snip them off and hand them me if you
want me to come/ The poor woman cut off her bar-
baric ornaments and handed them to the priest. ' You
are surely coming now, father?' Tm going to have a
drop of something, I can tell you, and eat my dinner
before I budge ; ' but here he was interrupted by a well-
directed blow from Uz^latz, who had vaulted the partition
at this point of the dialogue— and his Reverence lay
sprawling on the ground. The woman received her money
back, together with some involuntary contributions from
the pope's privy purse ; the other pope hurried off
double quick, to administer ghosriy comfort free, gratis,
and for nothing ; and his Reverence himself got a good
sound drubbing, at the conclusion of which Uz^latz took
care to cut his beard ofif. Alas 1 in Bosnia a beardless
priest is no better than a layman.

* Always the best thing to do with priests,' remarked
my ex-insurgent friend, oracularly — * cut their beards off.'

* Have you done it more than once ? ' I inquired. It
appeared that Uzdlatz^^^T performed that operation on at
least one other occasion. Priests in Bosnia are invited at
times to sprinkle houses with holy water for the regu-
lation fee of one grosch for each house. One fine day a
pope conceived the happy idea of inviting himself to
perform the lucrative lustration. He appeared accord-
ingly in a village then occupied by the insurgents, and
unfolded to the eyes of the astonished villagers a docu-
ment, which he professed to have received from the
Vojvode Uzdatz, authorizing him to sprinkle every house.

LETTER

II.

An ava-
ricious
'pope:

SHEARING THE SHEPHERD.

LETTER
II.

Shearing

the

shepherd.

Village '
priests
insurgent
allies^

The villagers, who could not read, had no choice but to
believe his story, and, as water is cheap and there were
over fifty houses in the village, the jpope Vas in a fair
way to make a pretty penny. He had already visited
several houses, and, it being customary on such occasions
to offer his Reverence a cup of arrack, was beginning to
get a little unsteady on his legs, when who should appear
on the scene but \5z&bXz himself. Of course the villagers
all wanted to know why he had sent the pope to sponge
on them. * Where is he ? ' said the Vojvode. * Drinking
" raki " at So-and-so's.' Uzdatz hurried to the house, but
no sooner did his Reverence catch sight of him than he
found his legs in a moment and was off, ' like a wolf.'

* Stop ! ' shouted Uz^tz, but as the pope only ran the
faster, he pretended to take aim at the runaway and fired
off his gun. This had the desired effect, and the pope
was cringing at the Vojvode's feet like a whipped hound,
'What is this precious document that you have been
showing to the people ? Out with it 1 ' shouted Uzdatz.

* Oh ! pray have mercy on me,* cried the pope, imfolding
a ragged piece of newspaper. * The fisict is I picked this
up, and I thought a little holy water would hurt nobody.'
Uzdlatz sheared the shepherd

Here you have — rather an unfavourable specimen,
perhaps — a village pope as he exists in Bosnia ; tutored
in avarice and resigned to ignorance by his ecclesiastical
superiors, but withal very much of * a man and a brother.'
Cut off his beard and there he is, a layman like the rest
Many Pravoslav priests have actually become insurgent
leaders. The village pope is the natural ally of the in-
surgent, just as his Fanariote bishop is the natural ally of
the worst among the pashas.

I must not forget my other companion on this

ILLYRIAN WINTER-SCENES.

journey, old Lazar, a brave, simple old Bosniac, who
has dealt the Turks many a hard blow in his day, and
who is at present a^ most trusty henchman of the English
^ Kralitzas,' for whom he distributes com in the more
inaccessible localities, and, not being able to read or
write, checks his accounts by cutting notches on sticks,
after the manner of our ol<} English tallies. He is honesty
itself. The natives say you might trust him an5rwhere
with a thousand florins, and his reverent affection to-
wards the English ladies was delightful to witness. Even
to me, as their friend, his devotion has been most touch-
ing ; he has ofifered to go with me among the Turks
themselves, and would do it too, though to him it means
tolerably certain death.

While Uz^latz has been recounting these merry
tales of popes and metropolitans we have left far behind
us Knin, with its ancient peak stronghold, — ^with its rich
expanse of plain, overgrown at a later season of the year
with luxuriant vines and golden maize, but as yet bare
and wintry enough, — with its crystal Kerka that dashes
headlong, like a fugitive spirit, in spray and foam from the
rock wilderness a few miles above the town, and, gliding
through the soft champaign and under the town bridge,
hides itself once more in endless rock-gullies, — up which
only yesterday the Bora — the true Boreas of antiquity, the
wild storm-wind for which lUyria is noted — was whistling
and shrieking, flinging itself upon the water with the
swoop of a sea-eagle, and such fierce might that the whole
surface of the river was momentarily lost in a curling
mist of spray, as when some parched highway is shrouded
in a dust-cloud by our milder gusts ! Knin is left behind
us as we ascend the romantic valley of the Buti§nitza ;
but not the winter, not the snow which clings to the

LETTEK

II.
Old Lazar.

Illyrian
winter-
scenes.

A DANCE OF DBA TH.

LETTER
II.

Starving
fugitives at
Sterm"
nitza.

mountain sides, towering above us on either hand, and
glistens on the loftier peaks of Mount Dinara beyond, —
not the Bora which howls ominously through the gorges
and hurries to us from the snowfields above with an icier
breath.

We approached the Bosnian frontier by way of the
village of Stermnitza, about which as many as 6,000
refugees are crowded. I had already been present at
one of Miss Irb/s distributions of com to the fugitives
near Knin, and had shuddered at the half-starved swarms
as they clamoured for a piece of English blanket to cover
their rags : but such misery as was here I had never in
my life seen, nor imagined to exist before. It was
pitiable. They thought we had brought food for them
all. They crowded round us, these pinched haggard
faces, these lean bony frames, scarred by disease and
bowed down with hunger ; they followed till it seemed
a dreadful dance of death. There was one lad of twelve,
as pale and frail as one of the littie snowdrops on our path;
we could see that he could not live many hours — and who
could wish him to ? — yet to him, as if for protection, clung
another younger child, whose only clothing was a few rags
tied together and eked out by the long tresses of a woman's
hair. Some English help has already reached Stermnitza,
but in many cases it had come too late, and in this village
alone over six hundred have died in the last few months.

A little further on the mountain side we came upon a
new graveyard already well tenanted. We now crossed
the Bosnian frontier, and followed a path which Uzdatz
himself had constructed along a precipitous mountain
steep, passing the dibrts of a stupendous landslip, and
beneath some extraordinary rock pinnacles called the
* Hare Stones ' by the Bosnians, because, according to the

THE FUGITIVES IN THE CAVERNS.

local legend, a hunted hare had once leaped from one rock-
column to another across an enormous chasm. Near
here we saw the first signs of Turkish ravages — the
village of 2^seok, burnt by the Turks at the first out-
break of the insurrection ; and presently foimd an old
Bosnian, who guided us by more difficult mountain paths
to a lonely glen, where a torrent divides the Austrian
from the ^Bosnian territory, and where, >n the Christian
side, we descried a series of caves in the rocky mountain
side, to which we now made our way. Then indeed
broke upon my sight such a depth o5 human misery as it
has perhaps fallen to the lot of few living men to witness.
We crossed a small frozen cataract, and passed the
mouths of two lesser caverns, toothed with icicles three
feet long and over, and then we came to the mouth of a
large cave, a great black opening in the rock, from which,
as we climbed up to it, crawled forth a squalid and half-
naked swarm of women, children, and old men, with
faces literally eaten away with hunger and disease. A
little way off was another smaller hole outside which
leant what had once been a beautiful girl, and inside,
amidst filth and squalor which I cannot describe, dimly
seen through smoke and darkness, lay a woman dying of
t)T)hus. Others crowded out of black holes and nooks,
and I found that there were about thirty in this den. In
another small hole, going almost straight down into the
rock, I saw a shapeless bundle of rags and part of the
pale half-hidden face of another woman stricken down
by the disease of hunger; another den with about a
dozen, and then another more horrible than any. A
black hole, sloping downwards at so steep an angle as
made climbing up or down a task of some difficulty,
descended thus abruptly about thirty feet, and then

LETTER
II.

Thefugi-
fives in the
caverns.

THE FUGITIVES IN THE CAVERNS,

LETTER
II.

A cavern
of the dead.

seemed to disappear into the bowels of the earth. The
usual haggard crowd swarmed out of the dark and foetid
recesses below and climbed up to seek for alms. A
woman seated on a ledge of rock half way up burst into
hysterical sobs ; it was the sight of old Lazar. The
good old fellow had already discovered these dens of
destitution, and had brought them some food from the
* Kralitzas ' all the way from Knin. They had tasted
nothing then for three days, and would have all died that
day, she said, if he had not come.

Then, slowly tottering and crawling from an under-
ground lurking place at the bottom of the pit, there
stumbled into the light an old man, so lean, so wasted,
with such hollow sunken eyes, that he seemed nothing
but a moving skeleton — it was the realisation of some
ghastly mediaeval picture of the resurrection of the dead !
He seemed to have lost his reason, but from below he
stretched out his bony hands towards us as if to grasp
our alms, and made a convulsive effort to climb the
rocky wall of his den. He raised himself with difficulty
a few feet, and then fell back exhausted, and was caught
by a girl in her arms. Poor old man ! It was not hard
to see that he would never leave that loathsome den
alive ; nay, I dare not say that those horrible recesses
were not -catacombs as well. Not far off we passed
another cave. Not a soul crawled forth from its dark
recesses ; not a sound, save the patter of an icicle just
reached by the noonday sun, broke the sepulchral
silence of its vaults. We had come too late. The
bodies of women and children lay within.

Strange as it may seem, amidst all this horror and
misery, the old Slavonic Zadruga, or family communism,
has been preserved. Every cavern has its house-father

REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENTS-UNDERGROUND,

and house-mother, and they have carried their little
constitution underground ! I availed myself of these
microcosms of representative government to distribute
among the cave constituencies sufficient for their present
wants. We then passed on to another mountain gorge,
where about 180 more of these unfortunates were crowded
in rude and insufficient shelters on the mountain side,
and while halting near here a pretty little girl came up
and told us how the Turks had fired at her but had not
hit her, which the little person thought great fun.
Here for the present I must pause. ^

* My readers will be glad to
learn that the refugees in the caves
who still survived were rescued
from their awful condition by Miss
Irby and Miss J ohnston' s exertions.

They have been housed in wooden
huts, for which Mr. W.R. Mitchell,
who visited them in July and was
struck by their wretched condition,
supplied the funds.

LETTER

II.

Another

Refugee

colony.

LETTER III.

AT INSURGENT HEAD- QUARTERS.

LETTER
III.

The camp
at Czemi
Potuk,

The Camp at Czemi Potuk, The Insurgent commander, Colonel Despo-
tovi£ : prevalent disaffection against him. Execution of a Bosnian
hero. Conversation with the Colonel. * La Bosnie,cestmai.* A Ma-
hometan Effendi. Polish of Mahometan Bosniacs. Non-provincial
character of Orthodox Church in Bosnia. Its influence in developing
Serb nationality,

Czemi Potuk, Free Bosnia, February 9.

FTER quitting the scenes described in my pre-
vious letter, we made our way up the course of
the Czemi Potuk, or Black Brook, above which
the present commander of the insurgents,Colonel
Despotovid, has pitched his head-quarters. Uz^atz here
left me, having the best reasons of his own for not putting
himself in the power of the present chief, who is in close
league with the Knin Comitato ;Tand under the guidance
of old Lazar I ascended a aifficult mountain steep
towards a gap in the rocks, which forms a kind of
natural gateway to the impregnable gorge in which the
low wooden sheds of the insurgent stationary camp are
built.

The position is splendid, and from the heights about
opened out a glorious panorama of the now snow-strewn
mountains of free Bosnia. The heights are singularly

THE INSURGENT COMMANDER,

bare of vegetation, like the neighbouring rock wilderness
of Dalmatia and the Dinaric Alps in general ; but for
purposes of defence they are admirable. Here and
there the precipitous ascent to the camp and the rocky
ridges around are flanked with breastworks of stone, but
such artificial defences are evidently a work of superero-
gationj

Nothing, indeed, is wanting to the Bosnian insurgents
but a leader. The present commander was appointed
originally last August by the Serbian Government (which
from the beginning has assumed a peculiar patronage
over the Bosnian insurrection), on the plea that the stout
old Bosnian Vojvode who then commanded, Golub
Babi<5, could not read or write — not a serious disqualifi-
cation for guerilla leadership over mountaineers as
illiterate as himself There was nothing in the previous
career of Despotovi<5 to justify the choice. Originally
in the Russian army, he joined the Serbians, but got into
hot water with Tchemayeff, and was despatched to Bosnia
as the place where he could do the least mischief He
signalized his arrival here by writing a despatch to the
Government at Belgrade in which he asserted that he
had taken GlamoS, Kliu^, and other strongholds from
the Turks — the fact being that since he took the command
not a single district has been added to the insurgent
possessions. On the contrary, Ws despotic manner has
so thoroughly disgusted this most kgcUitaire of peoples
that several bands have already broken away from his
authority, and only a couple of days ago a deputation
from the insurgent camp arrived in Knin to consult on
the best means of getting rid of him.

Affairs have been brought to this pitch by an act of
harshness the more unwise that if it was committed in the

LETTER

III.

Colonel
Despotovi/f.

EXECUTION OF A BOSNIAN HERO,

LETTER
III.

Different
ways of
preserving
discipline
among Bos-
nians,

name of discipline it had all the appearance of an act of
private vengeance.

One of the most popular men here, Vrani(5, who was
regarded with peculiar veneration by the Bosnians as a
martyr of the Christian cause, for which he had spent
twelve years in a Turkish dungeon at Widin, appears to
have shown some dissatisfaction at the small amount of
the rations meted' out, and to have hinted that the men
would like to know what became of all the money sent
from Serbia, Russia, and elsewhere. The same man
was not long afterwards tempted by hunger to take an ox
from a village, telling the villagers that the colonel would
pay for it.

Uzdlatz during the days of his command had dealt
with a similar offence in an original but effective manner.
One evening one of his men had made off with a por-
tion not his own. The savoury mess was already
simmering over the fire, and the purloiner and his friends
were smacking their lips at the prospect of a good supper,
when who should walk in upon them but the Vojvode.

* So the goose is there^ is it, my lads?' he observed grimly,

* well, I'll pepper it for you I ' and he discharged his gun
into the pot

Despotovid, however, who has the makings of a petty
autocrat about him, behaved less leniently, eagerly seized
the occasion, and, disregarding the entreaties of his men
or the past services of one who had suffered for the
cause, shot him in the camp. It needs a thorough
acquaintance with the Bosnian character and the peculiar
relations of chiefs and followers in the insurgent camp to
understand the feelings of horror and indignation which
this stem act has roused among the Bosnians. Old Lazar
sits for hours at a time brooding over the death of Vranid,

INTERVIEW WITH DESPOTOVld.

who was his friend, and the disaffection against Despo-
tovic is general.

Knowing all this, it was with very mixed feelings that
I found myself in the presence of this potentate, a man
of spruce but bovine presence, who swaggered up clinking
his spurs, and welcomed me in a loud voice in French.
He took me a small stroll along the mountain edge, and
after venting his spleen against Uzdatz, against whom
even he admitted tha*t he had no specific charges, launched
forth on his own prowess against the Turks.

Pointing to a line of snowy mountains from which <
Hannibal himself might have recoiled, he observed
casually that up there he had beaten 12,000 Turks.

I looked unaffectedly surprised.

*Beat them!' resumed the Colonel, twirling his
moustache and clinking his spur against the rock. * Beat
them ! Why, I cut them to pieces I '

* Well, now. Colonel,' I observed, maliciously, * I have
always wondered why you did not occupy Kliu6 ' — the
strong Turkish rock-fortress to the west of the insurgent
territory, on the capture of which see Despotovi<5's
famous despatch. The Colonel muttered something
about the Austrians seizing all his powder, and changed
the subject. We shortly returned to his quarters, where
I was served with tea d la Russe and spongecake glack
(within an hour or so's distance from those starving deni-
zens of the caves); after which the General — I cannot
call him Colonel ! — had in some of his rank and file, and
bullied them apparently for my special delectation. After
supper, served on a Turkish tepshta and washed down
with a choice variety of Dalmatian wine, the General
waxed still more candid in his confidences. ' Voyez-
vous,' he remarked, with a magnificent flourish, * que je

LETTER
III.

My meeting

with

Despotovii.

POLISH OF MAHOMETAN BOSNIA CS.

LETTER
III.

A Maho-
metan
Effendi.

Refining
infiuence
among
Bosnian
Maho-
metans.

ne suis pas seulement commandant de Tarm^e bosniaque
— je suis chef du peuple bosniaque/

* In fact/ I said, * this is your Montenegro, and you
are its Nikola.*

* Precisely,' said our ex-Russian officer; *j'y suis le
Prince Regnant/

During the evening I was pleased to make the
acquaintance of a Mahometan Effendi, who had been
captured by the insurgents, and, in return for his freedom,
has consented to remain here as Despotovid's secretary
, » for Turkish correspondence. He was quite a different
stamp of man from the surrounding rayah insurgents.
His manners were distinguished from those of the more
rugged warriors around by that peculiar Oriental polish
which in Bosnia marks off the Mahometan Slavs so deci-
sively from their oppressed Christian kinsmen. Perhaps
it is that among the dominant caste in Bosnia the stately
influence of Asiatic civilization has been engrafted on
some still surviving relics of Western chivalry — inherited
together with much of its barbarism and caste tyranny —
from the days of the feudal kingdom. In that case this
polish, which has something of the gloss upon the tiger's
skin, is a speciality of the Bosnian Mahometans ; indeed,
I would note that as early as the seventeenth century
the Imperialists and subjects of the Serene RepubUc,
whose acquaintance with Turkey surpassed that of other
Europeans, had already made the observation that (to
quote the words of an old chronicler) *the Turks of
Bosnia be far more courteous and polite than the other
Turks : forasmuch as these latter are wont to be of a high
and mighty spirit, neither friendly nor accommodating.' ^

1 See Der Neu-eroffneten Otto- Augspurg, 1701, p. 128, sub anno
fnanischtn Pforten Fortsctzung, 1671 : ' Die Innwohner (von Bos>

TRADITIONS OF THE MEDIEVAL KINGDOM,

My Effendi was endowed with a peculiar address in
his conversation with his captors and employers, and sup-
ported rather a difficult position with an easy grace that
excited my admiration. I don't think any courtier of
Stamboul could have surpassed the deferential grace, the
consiimmate stateliness, of the * temena * with which he
saluted the insurgent commander! It was flattery in
gesticulation, an elaborate compliment spun out in dumb
show, — and to see the Colonel stroke his whiskers after
it! *C'est un homme d'esprit, tout-k-fait spirituel/ he
remarked to me, complacently.

Not less strange was the origin of our interview. I
had been trying to find what traditions of the mediaeval
kingdom of Bosnia might linger on among the natives of
this district, the scene of the final overthrow of the
Bosnian kingdom. The insurgents knew little. They
had historic traditions indeed, but they all belonged, not
to ancient Bosnia, but to ancient Serbia. The heroes
they recalled were all Serbian, and not Bosnian ; till at
last one of them suggested that they should call in the
Mahometan Effendi, for the Mahometans know something
of Bosnian history; and sure enough the Effendi was
ready with strange local legends which the Christians had
lost. It is the descendants of the renegade nobility of
this country who inherit its history, while the orthodox
Greeks, as the insurgents of this district all are, hardly
had a share of it in the past. The Roman Catholics, on
the other hand, who divided with the heretic forefathers
of the present Mahometans the past history of Bosnia,
have also their traditions still ; but the Orthodox Church

LETTER
III.

A stately
'temena.' .

National
traditions
among Ma-
hometan
Bosniacs,

nien) den Ruhm haben dass sie letztere seyn gemeiniglich eines
viel hoflicher und politer seyen als hochmtithigen Geists, unfreundlich
die andere Ttircken : dann diese und unertraglich.'

THE PRAVOSLAV CHURCH,

LETTER
III.

Non-fro-
vincial
character of
Pravoslav
Church in
Bosnia,

seems to have crept into Bosnia from the East since the
Turkish conquest, fin days of captivity it, as the more com-
munistic confession, has been perpetually gaining ground
in the house-communities of the rayah ; it has imported
with it national heroes, Slav, it is true, but from beyond
the old Bosnian area ; and to-day even in Bosnia the
thoughts of its votaries turn to Dushan and Lazar, and
not to their provincial kings.

This silent advance of the Orthodox Serbian Church,
borne onwards on a tide of nationality, at the present
moment invading Dalmatia, Croatia, and Slavonia simul-
taneously,* is fraught with pregnant consequences, and a
few generations hence may make the dreams of South
Slavonic union, vain to-day, easier of realization than they
were in the days of the greatest Serbian Czar.

1 Since this was written a most
striking landmark of the increased
numbers and influence of the
Orthodox Church has made its
appearance in Dalmatia. On Oc-
tober 2ist (1877) the first Pravoslav
Church ever permitted within its
walls was opened at Ragusa, and
the opening ceremonywas attended
by deputations and clergy from
Zara, Cattaro, and the other Dal-
matian cities, as well as from Mon-
tenegro and towns in the Herzego-
vina. The Archimandrite DuSid

attended from Belgrade. The
erection of this church and the
demonstration of the opening cere-
mony derive additional signifi-
cance from the fact that the Roman
Catholic hierarchy had striven
tooth and nail to prevent such a
'scandal,' as they called it, in
'Catholic Ragusa.' The good-
tempered and even sympathetic
attitude of the Ragusan citizens
during the day formed a marked
contrast to that of their priests.

LETTER IV.

THE CLOUDLANUS OF FREE BOSNIA.

Extent of im argent territofj. Start to explore it. Turkish ravages.
Up Mount DuilHtza. Illyrian *poljes' or mountain plateaux. Their
value in defensive mountain warfare. Two more insurgent camps.
Entertained by Vojvode. Finer type of men in this part. To what
due. Monstrosities of barbarism. Old Castle of Akksia. On the
track of the Bashi^bazouks. Massacre of Vidovosilo. Chasm of the
Gudaja, Vale of Unnatz. Insurgent * chita* A Homeric evening.

LETTKK
IV.

TiSovo, Free Bosnia, February lo.

HERE are some five hundred insurgents en-
camped in the neighbourhood of Despotovid's
head-quarters : those I saw were fairly clad,
some in Montenegrin fashion, well armed, and
seemed to want for nothing. The insurgents, however,
under Despotovi<5's command are scattered at present
over a wide area of country, forming an irregular moun-
tainous triangle between the Austrian frontier and the
Turkish fortresses of Kulen Vakup, Kliu6, and GlamoS,
the chief bulwark of which to the east is the great moun-
tain mass of Gzema Gora, or the Black Mountain ; so
that there literally exists at the present moment a little
Bosnian Montenegro.

It was to exploring the whole of this difficult country
and to visiting the other principal insurgent camps that I

Extent of
Insurgent
territory.

EXPEDTTION INTO INSURGENT TERRITORY,

LETTER
IV.

/ start to
explore
'Free
Bosnia*

Indigna-
tion against
England
among Ma-
hometans
in Bosnia.

Turkish
ravages.

had resolved to devote the following days ; and I was
lucky in securing the services of the ex-commander Golub
Babi<5, who is still chief Vojvode of the insurgents and
their most trusted leader, as my guide and escort I
was also accompanied by Atanasija Smilianid,^ a young
but exceedingly brave warrior, of a famed a^d noble Dal-
matian race, and who spoke German tolerably well.

I was mounted on a sure-footed Bosnian pony, and,
with no more deadly weapon than a walking-stick, set
forth with my escort armed to the teeth to explore a
country as little known to Europeans as the wilds of Asia ;
the Mahometan Effendi, of whom I took leave, grimly
expressing a hope that I would call on some friends of his
at Petrovatz, as they had vowed a vow to hang the first
Englishman they set eyes on ! Obviously we are losing
our popularity in Bosnia, and indeed the Effendi explained
that among the Bosnian Begs, who have lost a good deal of
property during the present troubles, the English are pecu-
liarly hateful, many of them declaring that they would
never have fought against the insurgents at all if they had
not been sure of English help. This is to be regretted, as
the fanatical raids of these Begs on the Christian popula-
tion of this part have been attended with terrible havoc
and ferocious deeds of cruelty.

Not long after leaving the camp of Czemi Potuk I
passed by the ruins of the Christian villages of Poduillitza
and Dolovi, and further on of Stozi§ta, burnt and entirely
razed to the ground by the Turks. There was a church,
of which only the foundations were traceable. We now
followed a mountain path, coasting and gradually ascend-
ing the great mass of Mount Duillitza, whose lower flanks

1 Killed five months later in leading an assault on a Turkish position
near Livno.

THE 'POLJES' OF ILLYRIA,

were covered with a stunted growth of small beeches.
The path was very difficult, being in places covered with
snowdrift ; but some hours of tedious progress up a pass
brought us to a mountain plateau divided by a central
ridge into two plains, which, shut in on all sides by the
mountain, looked like the beds of two large lakes.

These ' poljes,' as they are called, are the characteristic
feature of the limestone mountains of lUyria,* and are the
oases of this vast desert, for whereas the mountains them-
selves are strewn with fragments of calcareous rock and
usually extremely barren, the surface of these * poljes ' is
quite flat and covered with soil, at times of great fertility.
Thus it is that here the villages congregate, and the fields
and pasture lands of the peasants are circled like a fortified
town by mountain walls, and are often approachable, as
in this instance, only by difficult mountain portals. When
this fact is appreciated you will understand the great
capabilities of defence possessed by a country whose
mountain strongholds contain fertile fields where com
may be sown and harvest gathered in. Against the
Turkish towns the insurgents may show themselves weak,
but with arms and ordinary leaders they could defy the
mvader for generations in these mountain fastnesses.

They are themselves beginning to appreciate their
defensive strength and the importance of dividing their
energies between agriculture and defence ; but during
the period when the insurrection on this side was confined
to a few villages on the Dalmatian frontier the Turk had
penetrated into these secluded uplands, and the village
of Resanovce, to the right, from which the neighbouring
* polje ' derives its name, had been burnt, as also Petchi,
the village of the ' polje ' to the left

Further on were two villages that had been spared

LETTER
IV.

The * poljes
of lllyria. '

More
Turkish

ravages.

28>

A CLOUDLAND COMMONWEALTH,

LETTER
IV.

Received by
armed
demonsirU'
Hon.

A lonely
ride.

by the destroyer. On enquiry I found that they belonged
to a Beg of Livno, who had harried this part of the
<5buntry, but had had the wisdom not to destroy his own
property, though his tenants were rayahs. He burned
the Christian villages of another landpwner instead ! The
first of these unbumed villages was Ispodisek ; the second
was Mala Cevce, which is at present a chita^ or camp,
of the insurgents ; and here, as we approached, we found
about two hundred armed men drawn up in a regular
line with fixed bayonets, who saluted the chief Vojvode
as he rode up. In this village and the other the women
and children still remained.

We now made our way between Mounts Prokus to
the right and Jedovnik to the left, and ascended to a
plateau covered with a beech forest, containing some
respectable timber, in parts of which the snow lay deep,
and then set to crossing another frozen * polje.*

I have been in many wild places, but I think I never
experienced a stranger sensation of being out of the world
than while riding for hour after hour through this vast
snow-laden forest and across the white icebound moun-
tain plateau, — alone with my two insurgent companions,
in a silence only broken by the clatter of our horses '
hoofs, as we penetrated deeper and deeper into the
unknown, unrecognized, undefined cloudland common-
wealth — shall I call it ? or principality ? — in the Turkey
of diplomatists — in the Christendom of patriots.

It was already twilight when we caught sight of our
day's destination, the village of Veliki Ti§ovo, perched
on a rocky . knoll on the side of the * polje.' Here is
another insurgent camp containing over four hundred
armed men who, as we approached, formed in line and
received us with another military demonstration.

NIGHT IN INSURGENT 'CHETA:

Here, as elsewhere, the men are hearty and hope^l.
and are armed with serviceable breechloaders, and the
village they occupy lies in such a secure position that it
has never been visited by the Turks. Amongst them I
noticed a young hero of thirteen with a fine yataghan
taken from the Turks. We were received into the hut of
P^ro Kr^^, the local Vojvode, and glad enough I was
to seat myself before his blazing pine-logs, for the cojd on
these uplands is intense. We were feasted with excellent
broth and mutton, and a very jovial evening was enlivened
with some songs about the Sultan by no means compli-
mentary in their character.

I am much struck at the difference between the
men here and the Bosnian rayahs that I remember still
imder the Turkish yoke. They are incomparably less
degraded, whether that so short an enjoyment of free-
dom has already elevated their character, or that the
mountaineers of this part have always been superior in
physique to those of the more central districts and of
the Possavina, or lands about the Save, where the in-
habitants are a smaller race and are contemptuously
spoken of by the Bosniacs themselves as * frogs.' The
people about here are Pravoslav in their religion to a
man, whereas in the more central and northern districts,
with which I had been previously better acquainted, the
population was largely Catholic ; and it has often been
remarked that the Pravoslavs or Orthodox in Bosnia are
moi*e manly and moral than the Latins. The Pravoslav
pope grasps his congregation by the hand \ the Romish
priest leads them by the nose. The Orthodox pope is
obliged to be a married man, which itself is a good
thing, for it is to be observed as an odd coincidence
that the only regions in Bosnia in which prostitutes

l-ETTER
IV.

Night in
Insurgent
* Chita:

Finer type
of nun here-
abouts^

A DESERTED VILLAGE.

LETTER
IV.

Monstro-
sities of
barbarism.

iheserted
half of
Priodatz.

are to be found are those where Romish priests are
plentiful.

Here I heard an instance of those revolting practices
which, with many other evil relics of mediaeval feudalism
or importations of Asiatic barbarism, still survive among
the Slavonic Begs of Bosnia. Mill Kotor, a peasant of
Grahovo, near here, was captured by one of the Mahome-
tan landlords and his Bashi-bazouk retainers, and forced
to swallow large quantities of salt and water. In a mill
at Stermnitza may be seen any day by those who are
curious as to these monstrosities of barbarism a man who
was tied face foremost to a tree and worried by dogs
while the Beg sat by and smoked his chibouk.

Unnatz, in Free Bosnia, February 1 1.

We left Ti§ovo about 6.30 this morning, and follow-
ing another mountain pass, leaving on our left the great
forest of Chator, a two hours' ride brought us to another
' polje * and the village of Prdodatz. The Turks had never
penetrated here, and one half of the village was still
occupied by its inhabitants ; the other half, however, had
left, having no com to sow, and are now among the refu-
gees at Stermnitza. So the cottages are empty and half
ruined, for the fugitives have carried with them part of
the wooden roofs for firewood, p'here are turbine mills
over the little stream, but the millers have gone. In this
village was an ancient graveyard, and an old cross over-
thrown and half buried in the earth. The people
said that when the Turks first conquered Bosnia a
marriage was going on here ; that the Turks rushed in,
killed the wedding guests and bridegroom, and carried off
the bride, and that this cross was set up in memory of the
tragedy. I had the cross raised, and discovered on its

MONUMENTS OF ANCIENT AND MODERN TYRANNY. \ 31

under side a very ancient Bosnian inscription \ but
though I have not yet succeeded in deciphering the runes,
they are hardly likely to throw much light upon the
legend. Beyond this was another monument of ancient
Bosnia, the foundations of a church long destroyed ; and
on a peak above, perched as if by magic on almost inac-
cessible rocks, overlooking on one side a stream at the
bottom of a stupendous chasm, stand the fine ruins of a
castle dating from the feudal days of the Christian king-
dom. Its massive tower looked down at present on
wasted fields and deserted homesteads, and brought home
to one in a singular way what the wretched serfs of
Bosnia have suffered both in the present and the past.
Aided by some ancient footsteps cut into the rock-wall, and
worn away in mediaeval times by long- forgotten warders,
I climbed up and explored the interior, but snow and ice
made the rock so difficult to descend that I should pro-
bably be a prisoner in the Castle of Aleksia at this
moment, had it not been for one of the insurgents, who
scaled the precipice and showed me a more practicable
descent^

But I must pass on to monuments of more modern
tyranny. Descending on another * polje,' we stopped at a
wretched hut at a village called Podid. Villages here
are often scattered, as in this instance, Over a large area
of country, so that in a map it is often impossible to
localize a name with any precision. In this instance, the
district of Podid runs apparently in an undefined manner
into that of Vidovosdlo, to the north-west of this * polje,'
and the whol3 of this district has been ravaged by the
Turks in a most atrocious manner. ^

As I have no wish to indulge in loose and unsubstan-
:tiated charges, I may say that I have taken down the

LETTER
IV.

Old Castle
of Aleksia.

A ravaged
'polje:

THE MASSACRE OF VIDOVOSJ^LQ,

LETTER
IV. /

Witnehes
of outrages
exan^ined

The mas-
sacre of
Vidavosilo,

accounts of three sets of witnesses. First, of the peasants,
a man and woman, at the hut at Podid ; secondly, of
two peasants of Vidovos^lo, by name Stoian Vasovic
and Gavran Tadid, whom I saw at Unnatz, and who
actually witnessed what occurred from a wood above the
village where they had hidden themselves ; and lastly,
from Boian Sterbatz, who was horribly cut in the neck by
a blow from a yataghan and his left hand nearly severed,
and who lies at present in the insurgent hospital at Knin,
where I saw him, and whose deposition and extraordinary
signature I have before me.

All these accounts agree in the minutest particular,
and I do not think that even the Turks themselves would
call them in question.

On the 1 2th of July last year, about two in the after-
noon, the peasants of this district were peacefully engaged
in their fields, when a large band of Bashi-bazouks from
GlamoS, under the leadership of Ahmed Beg Pilipovid
of that place, broke into the * polje.* They hunted down
and killed — some on the plain and some in the houses —
twenty-three unarmed peasants, nine of the village of
Podid and fourteen of Vidovosdlo. I have the names
and families of all the victims before me. Among them
were two children, one of five years old and the other
about ten. The village pope, Damian Sterbatz, was
hacked to pieces ; his wife, Stana Sterbatz, was cut with
yataghans about the breast; and his daughter, Militza,
was wounded in the arm. The villages were first plun-
dered and then burnt, and the Turks made oflf to Glamos,
carrying with them the heads of most of their victims.

The hut we were in was saved from burning by the
timely appearance of an insurgent band on the height
above. A party of Bashi-bazouks were engaged in plun-

THE CHASM OF THE GUDAJA,

dering the cottage when they caught sight of the enemy,
and as unarmed peasants and women were their game,
and not armed men, they decamped in a hurry.

After paying a visit to the graves of the victims, we
crossed the * polje ' and made our way towards the valley of
the Unnatz, the most important stream in the insurgent
territory, by a pass which showed the wonderful capa-
bilities of defence possessed by this country. It was a
narrow cleft between the mountains of TeSainovatza and
Poinatz, through which the Gudaja torrent poured its
waters towards the Unnatz. The cliannel of tiie torrent
formed the only path, and above on either side two sheer
wall6 of rock, in places not three yards distant from each
other, towered several hundred feet Such a pass as
this could be defended against hundreds by ten resolute
men.

Emerging on the valley of the Unnatz, I found a more
fertile and friendly coimtry than any I have yet seen in
the liberated district of Bosnia. The beech trees were
finer and the soil ricber, and the village of Lower Unnatz
itself, to which we now made our way, was as flourishing
as any in this part of Bosnia before it was burnt and
harried by the Turks. As it is, the devastation is cruel ;
the fields lie waste, and only a few huts, where the * ch^ta,*
or insurgent camp, is pitched, are still unbumt and sur-
rounded by a little cultivation. On our way we made a
slight dktour to visit the remains of an ancient church that
once rose on the other side of the valley, and the archi-
tectural fragments which I there discovered showed that
in days before the Turkish conquest something of a higher
civilization had penetrated into this remote valley.

About eleven hours from our morning's start we
arrived at the * chdta ' of Unnatz, where we were received,

A StUptH'

thus aeJlU,

The Vale of
Unnatx.

^Relic of
former
civiliza-
tion.

A HOMERIC EVENING,

LETTER
IV.

Enter* .
tainted by
Vojvade.

as elsewhere, with military honours by a troop of about
one' hundred and fifty insurgents.

We were now welcomed into the hut of the local
Vojvode, Simo Kralj, and here I passed an evening
which carried one back to Homeric times. The evening
meal was served, as elsewhere, on a round board, on
which was first set a great bowl of boiled Indian com,
from which the assembled chieftains and their guest
helped themselves by means of curiously ornamented
^wooden spoons. This was succeeded by lumps of
kiutton, which we picked off the board with our fingers,
one at a time, and at intervals the host handed to each in
turn a silver drinking cup of curiously antique shape filled
to brimming with thick Dalmatian wine. The women and
children, and those of less consequence, ate afterwards,
and during the meal two women held torches of resinous
pinewood above our heads. Then the *ghuzla,' the
national lyre, was brought out, and a venerable minstrel
played and sang the songs of firee Bosnia, for amongst
this highly poetic people the insurrection has already its
unwritten epics..

Then I stretched myself with the others on the hay
that had been strewn, as. an unusual luxury, for our com-
mon couch, and, with my feet towards the 'embers,
prepared to pass firom cloudland into dreamland \ and
last of all the chieftain, with patriarchal ceremony, spread
a sheepskin over me against the small hours of the night.

LETTER V.

FEUDAL CASTLES AND INSURGENT HUTS.

Old Castle of Vissovi^a Grad. In the Black Queen's dungeon. Starving
fugitives in the mountains. Two old women murdered by Bashi-
bazouks. The Vale of Unnatz. Remains of Roman building and
finebas-^elief of Mercury. A night with cows and peasants. Bosnian
idea of an antiquary. More havoc. Ruined tower and monastery
ofErmanja. A desecrated church. The fate of three villages. In
the Insurgent camp. Number of Insurgents under Despotovi^. As-
sembly of Vojvodes. Domestic arts and refinement among rayahs.
Confiuence of Unna and Unnatz. Attempt of Despotovid' s myrmidons
to murder Uzilatz.

LETTER
V.

Ermanja, Free Bosnia, February 12.

EXT morning I was guided up a mountain above
Unnatz to see an old castle, called Vissovida
Grad, of extraordinary interest, as, according to
the local tradition, the refuge of Helena, one of
the last Queens of Christian Bosnia; others, however,
told that a certain Black Queen, of more mysterious origin,
lived here. The ruins ^ were evei^ more magnificent than
those of the Castle of Aleksia, and so difficult of access
that the insmrgents broughtup a ladder to aid us in climbing
the rocks. Even with this aid, the approach to the castle is a

* The castle and the other district were absolutely unknown
ancient remains that I saw in this even to Slavonic antiquaries.

IN THE BLACK QUEEN'S DUNGEON

LETTER
V. '

Old Castle
Vissovica,

A colony of

starving

fugitives.

matter of considerable difficulty, fbr it rises on an isolated
peak of rock, separated from the main body of the moun-
tain by a chasm, and on the other side towering sheer above
the VissoviiSa torrent which, hundreds of feet below, leaps
in a score of little waterfalls, foaming and roaring through
the dark gorge towards the Unnatz. The most perfect
part of the castle was the octagonal tower which crowned
the whole stronghold, and outside which, near the very
summit, I discovered another old Bosnian inscription.
Below the tower was what apparently had been a great
banqueting hall, with a curious moulding round one of
the windows, and the remains of a great stone chinmey, a
relic of civilization quite unexpected. Under the tower
I observed a small hole going down into the rock, half
choked with earth, but with the aid of my insurgent guides
I cleared away sufficient to afford a passage for my body,
and regardless of the entreaties of the Bosniacs, who
thought the enterprise uncanny, I disappeared below and
foimd myself in an ancient dungeon, hewn apparently
out of the solid rock. I wondered what grim scenes had
been enacted there in the Black Queen's days !

But I cannot stop to describe old castles at present
My guides now directed me across a bare mountain
plateau to an object of more living interest — a wretched
settlement of rayah fugitives who had fled from near
Stari Maidan, in Turkish Bosnia, the scene of terrible
atrocities. At this spot there were about thirty in all,
but, from the lamentable state in which they were, many
must have died before this letter reaches you. Seven or
eight of them were children — such little old faces, pinched;
and wrinkled and distorted with famine and disease, some
scarcely able to stand. They had been living through
the winter on what they could beg of the villagers of

ROMAN CIVILIZATION AND TURKISH BARBARISM,

neighbouring 'poljes' almost as destitute as themselves. I
distributed some paper florins among them, which they
received with stupid wonder; what did they know of
Austrian paper money ? — they wanted bread I There are
hundreds of such groups, from what I can hear, among
these mountains, to whom no one can hope to penetrate
with aid.

rWe now descended once more to the valley of the
Unnatz, in which I discovered what I take to be the
remains of a large Roihan building, a great mound from
which protruded large, finely-squared blocks, some of
which had been used in mediaeval times as tombstones,
but on one of which I discovered to my delight a bas-
relief of Mercury standing, caduceus in hand, in a sin-
gularly graceful attitude, which evidently dated from the
best period of Roman art. Beyond were the ruins of a
house belonging to Ali Beg Kulenovid We had seen
another such at Unnatz, burnt as reprisals after the harry-
ing of this valley by the Beg and his hordesj

Most of the unarmed inhabitants of Unnatz itself
succeeded in escaping before the Turks came, but five
were murdered. I was told by a man here who had seen
the bodies — and his evidence has since been corroborated
by that of others — that among the slain were two old
women ; one, Jeka Pecianska, said to have been aged
eighty-five, and the other Simeona Mihailovid, of whose
age I could get nothing more definite than that * she was
old, very old, about one hundred.' This great age is not,
however, intrinsically improbable, as there are instances
of extraordinary longevity to be found among the
Bosnian refugees. One about whom Miss Irby made
inquiries is reported to be 107. No children were killed
here.

starving
fugitives in
the maun'-
tains.

Bas-relief
of Mercury
and

remains of
Roman
buildings.

Two old
women
murdered
by Bashi-
fazouks.

LETTER

Strange
bedfellows.

The gold-
hoards and
dragons of
Free
Bosnia,

Ertnanja
Minster,

BOSNIAN IDEA OF AN ANTIQUARY !

We followed a side stream up a romantic gorge to a hovel
called PanSavoda, where we passed the night The former
homestead had been burnt by the Turks, and its blackened
site lay on the other side of the rivulet The inmates,
however, had escaped to the forest above, and seemed to
have carried off most of their property, as they were now
very well off, having about fifty sheep and some half-
dozen cows, which latter passed the night with us. One
meets with strange bedfellows in these regions ! The
peasant family here as well as the insurgents* were very
curious to know why I took such pains to explore the
ancient ruins. Of course they were firmly convinced that
I had come to hunt for treasure. * Ay,* said one old
fellow, * folks say there is gold enough under Vissovica
tower, if you only dig deep enough.'

* Ah ! ' I repHed, laughing, * IVe been down already
under Vissovi(5a tower — but if you want to do the same
I advise you to look out for the dragon ! '

'There are always dragons where there are gold
hoards,' was the sage reply, * or else the treasure would
have been dug up long ago, you may be sure.'

I had recourse to iEsop and told them the fable of
the man who bade his sons dig in their vineyard for gold,
which greatly pleased the Bosniacs.

Next morning at daybreak we started once more on
our way, and ascended a mountain plateau, where was a
small ' polje,' and many more burnt houses, the fences
round the fields still standing, except where they had
been hacked and trampled down by the authors of this
havoc.

A few more hours through a beech forest, where
snowdrops grew, and down a steep incline, brought us to
Ermanja, which derives its name firom Hermann of Cilli,

THE FATE OF THREE VILLAGES,

whose massive round tower still stands amidst the black-
ened ruins of what till a year ago was a flourishing
Christian village. There was also a famed Pravoslav
monastery, now destroyed, and a church, to which I
made my way. It had been restored a few years ago
and newly whitewashed, for its frescoes have long dis-
appeared ; but it is at present little short of a ruin. The
Turks, who paid it a visit in September 1875, have cer-
tainly done their worst. They have torn up the floor,
smashed and overthrown the sacred furniture, broken in
the roof and parts of the wall, and riddled the whole
inside with bullet holes. It was on September 15, 1875,
that Tahir Beg Kulenovid came here with a horde of
3,500 Bashi-bazouks and burnt this and the neighbouring
villages of Great and Little Svietnid, cutting down three
old men; six women, and four children who had not es-
caped in time. The rest of the inhabitants took refuge
on the mountain plateau of Osjenitza, which we had
passed above Unnatz. On May 14, however, of last
year they Wiere hunted out even there by a gang of Bashi-
bazouks from the direction of Kulen Vakup, Bielaj,
and Petrovatz, and twenty-four more were massacred, in
this case, as in the other, all of them old men, women,
and children.

At the * chdta ' here I noticed certain Croatian ele-
ments among the men, showing that we are now on a
more northern part of the frontier. Croatia is, in fact,
only separated here from Bosnia by the Unna, which at
this point, after a beautiful fall, joins the Unnatz. The
insurgents here, as elsewhere, seemed in good spirits and
to want for nothing ; and indeed, after visiting five in-
surgent camps, I am inclined to take a far more favour-
able view of the prospects of the insurrection than is

LETTER
V.

A dese-
crated
church.

M issacre

0/
Osjenitza.

STRENGTH AND DISTRIBUTION OF INSURGENTS,

I>.ETTER
V.

Vitality of
Bosnian in'
surrection.

An insur-
gent Par-
liament,

usual outside Bosnia. Among the Slavs of the border
countries there is at present a certain amount of dejection,
owing chiefly to the corrupt transactions of many of their
own committees and soi-disant patriots ; and in Croatia
especially subscriptions have latterly fallen off. But once
on the free soil of liberated Bosnia one breathes a purer
air, and I do not doubt that the men I have met would
shed the last drop of their blood rather than lay down
their arms. No one here dreams of peace. The number
of insurgents under arms, even during the armistice,
amounts to nearly 2,000, and when the armistice expires
this can be raised to between 4,500 and 5,000 men — z,
force amply sufficient to defend these alpine strongholds
against any odds.^ Every man amongst them is a bom
cragsman, and their leaders know every stock and stone
of these almost unexplored mountains.

Serb, Bosnian-Croatian Frontier, February 13.

At Ermanja I was present at a little * SkupStina, ' or
assembly for debate, of some insurgent Vojvodes. The

1 The camps then under Despo-
tovid's command were at Czemi
Potuk, under Despotovid's im-
mediate supervision ; atPeuJip,
under the monk Ilija BilBija; at
Marinkovce, under Peter Kre6o ;
at Upper Unnatz, under Simo
Kralj ; at Ermanja, under Trit'an
Stoikovid ; at Osredke, under Paul
Babi<5 ; and at Mala Cevce, Veliki
TiSovo, and lesser detachments at
about twenty other spots. In
these accounts the insurgents of
Northern Bosnia, in Mounts Ger-
metz and Kosaratz, the detach-
ment in Mount Prolog, under the

Roman Catholic, Fra Buonaven-
tura ; those under Mu5si<5 on the
Herzegovinian frontier near Ra-
gusa, and the Herzegovinian
insurgent bands along the whole
northern and eastern borders of
Montenegro are not reckoned in,
as owning no allegiance to Despo-
tovid The same general distri-
bution of the insurrection con-
tinues now (February 1878)
unaltered, except that ,the Upper
Herzegovinian dans are more
thoroughly merged in Monte-
negro.

SOME EFFECTS OF FAMILY COMMUifiSM,

speakers were assembled in a ring inside an insurgent
hut ^ was much struck at the real parliamentary tapa-
bilities of these simple armed peasants in discussing their
affairs. Each speaker in turn said what he had to say in
a straightforward, business-like manner, without any ora-
torical vagaries, and yet with a ready flow of speech
which never hesitated. I cannot believe that a party of
English farm labourers could have discussed their affairs
with equal readiness. These people, it is true, cannot
read or write, but they have in their rude way a kind of
civilization, and even education, of their own. In this
part of Bosnia what is known as the * Zadruga ' system
prevails — that is, the people live in large family com*
munities, holding all things in common, and choosing a
'house-father' and a 'house-mother,' generally the
elders of the family, to direct these. Thus what is really
a group of families becomes one household, whose mem-
bers discuss their affairs in common in the common hall
where they meet for meals, and it is natural that, prac-
tising every day the forms of parliamentary government
in miniature, the faculty of debate should be more de-
veloped in the rayah of Southern Bosnia than in an
English Hodge. The people about here are, in fact,
educated in many practical ways by the hardest • of all
task-mistresses — ^necessity. Every man here is capable
of building his own house, though it is true he does not
aspire to a high style of architecture ; and every woman
can make her own clothes. At the wretched hovel of
PanSavoda I was much struck with the neatness of a set
of earthenware pots which the family had just been
making for themselves.

Nor is the more aesthetic side of education altogether
wanting. The music is nide, but everybody is a musi-

LETTER

Faculty of

debate

amtmg

Bosniac

rayahs,.

The

' Zadruga '

or family

community.

Doniestic
education
among
rayhhs.

HOMELY REFINEMENT AMONG BOSNIACS.

LETTER
V.

Domestic

culture

among

Bosniac

rayahs.

Traits of
cleanliness.

The upper
valley of
the Unna.

cian. Literature is altogether wanting, but the poetic
lore of the Bosniacs and other Southern Slavs surpasses,
perhaps, in extent that of any other European people.
Historians these simple Bosniacs have not, but the past
lives in their heroic lays, and has not history some need to
be idealized among the children and great-grandchildren
of bondsmen ? In much of their dress these people display
great taste ; and, speaking generally of South Slavonic
peasants, I should say that the beauty of their costume
and the brilliance of its colouring are not anywhere sur-
passed. But what strikes the stranger perhaps most is the
extraordinary elegance of the devices with which the pea-
sants here adorn their tombstones. Compared with the
neighbouring population of Dalmatia I have even noticed
traits of cleanliness, traceable no doubt to a good in-
fluence of Islim among the warriors and peasants of free
Bosnia. Thus they washed their hands by pouring water
on them, Turkish fashion, from a tin vessel before and
after meals ; and, though the floor was only of earth,
they swept away the crumbs and fragments after every
repast with a fir branch that serves as a broom in these
establishments^

The path from Ermanja to Serb, where I left the
territory of Free Bosnia, lies along the upper valley of the
Unna, the right bank of which belongs to the insurgents,
the left being the Austro-Hungarian frontier. This tract,
through which I rode about four hours, was the most
fertile I had yet seen. It was entered by a narrow and
difiicult gorge, through which the blue waters of the Unna
burst their way in a series of beautiful cascades, and
where, on the rocks above, keeping watch and ward for
stray cattle, we saw a fine wolf, at whom my escort fired
ineffectually. Thus this oasis of fertility, being bordered

PLOT AGAINST UZALATZ'S LIFE.

by Christendom on the only accessible side, offers every
possible facility for defence, and should never be allowed
to come once more into the hands of the Turk. Many
refugees now across the border might, no doubt, be
induced to return here if only supplied with seed corn ;
and the soil is so good that, judging from what is possible
in some of the neighbouring Dalmatian valleys, I should
say that on the southern slopes vines and olives might be
profitably cultivated. At present it is the usual scene of
devastation, contrasting forcibly with the opposite (Aus-
trian) bank of the river.

At a small Bosnian hovel opposite the Croatian village
of Serb I took leave of my escort, the Chief Vojvode
Golub and Smilianid, and found myself once more on
Austrian soil. Here, from Uzdlatz and others, I have
learned the particulars of a plot concocted by Despotovi<5
against his life. It seems that the colonel, having learned
from me that the ex-insurgent commander was on his
way to the valley of the Unna, sent five of his most trusted
henchmen to seize Uz^atz in the Bosnian hamlet of Serb
and shoot him. I saw the gang set out on their errand
on horseback, but had no idea of their mission ; and I
have since discovered that he offered old Lazar, in whose
company I had arrived at the camp of Czemi Potuk, a
large bribe if he would betray the confidence he enjoyed
with Uz^atz to decoy him to his doom. The gallant old
Bosniac refused the offer with indignation, but the other
myrmidons set forth on their errand, and found Uzdlatz
at Serb, surrounded by a party of insurgents and peasants,
amongst all of whom Uz^latz is extremely popular. The
emissaries of Despotovid came up and told Uz^atz
that they were very sorry, but they had their orders, and
he was to accompany them. Uz^latz, who had no

LETTER
V.

Plot
against

Uzilatz's
ife.

UZELATZ SAVED.

LETTER
V.

weapon with him, simply raised his stick, and about forty
of the insurgents then at Serb stepped forward and sur-
rounded the emissaries of their own colonel I The
captors were taken captive, but were set free and allowed
to return to head-quarters, there to report on the result
of their mission.

LETTER VI.

THE DEVASTATION OF BOSNIA, AND MR. CONSUL HOLMES*

REPORTS.

Discussion among Insurgent chiefs on the present crisis. Attacks against
our Consul, Mr. Holmes. Difficult position of the English Consul at
Serajevo. My protest against his reports. Mr. Holmes accused of
carrying false impressions as to the state of his Province to the Con-
ference at Constantinople. Uzilatz's report on the devastation of
Bosnia. Its accuracy so far as I have tested it. Appalling extent of
Turkish ravages in Bosnia.

Sinj, on the Bosniaii'Dalmatian Frontier, February 20.

|T Ermanja, as I have already mentioned, as also
at Unnatz, there was a kind of debate among
the insurgent chieftains on the present crisis
and the attitude of Serbia and the Great Powers,
especially England. It is a great misfortune at the present
crisis that the English representative in Bosnia should be
the object of almost fanatical abhorrence among the rayah
population, of the province. TEe peculiar position of
Serajevo, I tHe general alienation even of the Christian
bourgeoisie of that city from the lot of the oppressed
peasantry of the country districts^ and the inherent neces-
sity of the consul of a friendly power maintaining friendly
and even intimate relations with the powers that be, com-
bine to render it extremely difficult for Mr. Holmes to
maintain an entente cordialevnXh the rayah and malcontent

LETTER
VI.

DIFFICULTIES OF AN ENGLISH CONSUL.

LETTER
VI.

Difficulties
in the way
of an
English
Consul in
Btfsnia,

Consul
Holmes*
statements
necessarily
^ ex parte,'

Foreign
Office ' tra-
ditions,*

elements of the country. An English consul cannot
resort to those underhand sources of information which
lie at the disposal of less scrupulous governments. The
sources of information which our representative in Serajevo
has at his disposal are either those of the official Osmanli
or those of that peculiar class of Christians (with whom
all visitors to the Levant are well acquainted), who,
having grown rich under the protection, and often in the
service, of the ruling caste, are usually, for reasons of their
own, more Turcophile than the Turks themselves. It is
certainly too much to expect that Mr. Holmes should
have been informed by the Turks themselves and their
friends of the horrors which have desolated the greater
part of Bosnia. So long as we are content to see English
interests represented in a barbarous country weighed
down by a corrupt and despotic government, so long
must this unfortunate state of things continue. The real
mistake lies not so much in the conduct of English consuls,
which is imposed on them to a great extent by their
position, but with our Foreign Office and an uncritical
portion of the English public when it accepts as gospel
truth reports prepared under auspices so unfavourable.
To have overcome the difficulties in his path, our consul in
Bosnia must have possessed tact, vigour, and the critical
faculty in no ordinary degree. He must have been able
to converse with the natives of his province in their own
language. He must have been continually in the saddle
in a province where travelling of every kind is a severe
physical strain. If Mr. Holmes possessed none of these
qualifications, some of the obloquy with which he has
been covered must be shared by the Foreign Office, which
appointed him to duties beyond his power of fulfilling.
So much in fairness must be said ; but, at the same

A PROTEST AGAINST CONSUL HOLMES' REPORTS,

time, I must enter the strongest possible protest against
the consular reports received by our Government from
the capital of Bosnia \ and when, as has already often
happened, Bosnian rayahs have inveighed against their
partiality, I must confess that my tongue was tied.*
Here, at Ermanja, and elsewhere the insurgent speakers
accused our consul of going to Constantinople to deny
the fact that the devastation in this province is anything
like what the Christian fugitives make out. Now I do
not know what Mr. Holmes may have said or done at
Constantinople, but considering the Turkish and philo-
Turkish sources of his information, considering that the
towns at Which he has resided have been protected by
the presence of regulars from the unutterable outrages
which have desolated the country districts, considering
that the highroads by which he may have left the country
have been also held by the Nizams, and that in these ex-
ceptional localities the burnt villages are happily few, it is
d. priori extremely probable that he carried optimist views
of the situation of the province with him to Stamboul.
The insiurgents here accused our consul of lending all the
weight of his authority to discredit a report on the devas-
tation of Bosnia which Uz^latz had drawn up and
presented to the Conference. Having a copy of this
report before me, I have done all in my power to test it
in the part of Bosnia that I have visited, and I am bound
to say that, so far as my experience goes, I have found it
fully borne out by testimony collected on the spot, and
the evidence of my eyes.

The number of villages burnt or partly burnt in the
part of Bosnia that lies along the Dalmatian border and

' See note at the end of Letter IX.

LETTER
VI.

Protest

against

Consul

Holmes*

reports.

Uzilatz's
report on
the devasta-
tion of
Bosnia.

THE DEVASTATION OF BOSNIA.

LETTER
VI.

UfUlatzs
report on
devastation
verified by
my observa-
tions.

The wast-
ing of
Southern
Bosnia by
the Turks.

The wast-
ing of the
Save
Valley.

extends inland towards Banjaluka, and is generally
known as South Bosnia, amounts, according to my
friend's report, to 145. In the district that I have visited
I have verified fifteen of these, and have besides seen two
burnt hamlets, Poduillitza and Dolovi, which had not
been reckoned. On the other hand, Prdodatz I had set
down as among the unbumt villages, and the houses that
I saw there, though partially deserted, were certainly
unbumt, but villages here are scattered over so many
miles of country that it is quite possible that a part of it
was burnt, and in that case the discrepancy is explained.
The statistics for this part of Bosnia were prepared by
Uzdatz himself almost entirely fi*om his own personal
observation, and you may rely upon their honesty. The
villages of this part contain, as a rule, between 20 and
100 houses, and their population varies between 150
and 1,000 souls, though it is generally nearer the lower
figure. Assimiing an average population in each village
of only 200 souls, the number of rayahs biunt out in
Southern Bosnia would amount to 29,000, a number
which falls short by about t,ooo souls of that of the
refugees along this part of the fi-ontier. The number of
churches burnt in tiiis part of Bosnia alone amounts
toSi.

Now, these figures relate to the poorest and most
rocky district of the province, and the proportion of
desolation and destruction in the more populous tracts,
such as the rich plains of the Save Valley, far exceeds
that of Southern Bosnia. The accounts I have received
fi*om English sources of the havoc wrought by the Turks
in the Herzegovina and on the Serbian border fiilly bear
out the terrible statistics that I have before me.

According to the doleful domesday book of Christian

THE DEVASTATION OF BOSNIA,

Bosnia, no less than 2,600 villages and scattered hamlets
have been wholly or partially burnt by the Turks in
Bosnia and the Herzegovina since the outbreak of the
present revolt. The number of old men, women, and
chDdren butchered in cold blood amounts to over 6,000.
The number who have died in the interior of the country
from hunger and exposure will probably never be known ;
the number of refugees on Christian soil I have already
stated to be at least a quarter of a million.

iLETTEfi
VL

LETTER VII.

HOW THE NEW CONSTITUTION WAS PROMULGATED IN

BOSNIA.

LETTER Still subsisting ties between Mahometan and Christian Bosniacs. Ease
VII. with which re-conversion takes place. Instance of Udbina. Sworn

brotherhood between Christians and Mahometans. Promulgation oj
Constitution at Kulen Vakup. Style of new Constitutional Sovereign
of Bosnia. 'Most comfortable words* The seven subject kings of
Europe. Equality before the law at Gradilka, Forcible conversion
to Isldm. How a Christian memorial was got up by a Turkish EJ"
fendi. Different aspect of affairs in larger Herzegonnnian towns.
Constitution not disagreeable to Osmanli bureaucracy, A new form
of electoral intimidation. Mahometan refugees at Ragusa,

Ragusa : February 26.

AM able to send you some details as to the
promulgation of the new Turkish Constitution
in Southern Bosnia. The source of my informa-
tion oddly illustrates the peculiar position of the
Mahometans in Bosnia and the relations which, in spite
of differences of creed, still subsist between the dominant
caste and their Christian kinsmen. In Bosnia, as my
readers 'are no doubt aware, there are, strictiy speaking,
hardly any Turks. The Turkish language is only spoken
by a small body of Osmanli officials and soldiery, the
native Mahometans being as full-blooded Slavs as the
rayahs they oppress, and speaking the same Serbian dialect.

OLD MAHOMETAN DISTRICT BECOME CHRISTIAN,

The native Mahometans belonged originally for the most
part to a persecuted Puritan sect who, on the Turkish
invasion, welcomed the then more tolerant Turks, and
afterwards renegaded in a body. Yet they have never
forgotten that their forefathers were once Christians, and,
fanatics as they are, they seem to become easy converts
to Christianity when once they see that destiny is against
them.

* Kismet,' for instance, has been decidedly against the
Mahometan population of the old Bosnian district of
Udbina, which has now been long under Austrian do-
minion, and forms part of Croatia. And what has taken
place?

The inhabitants, who were formerly all Mahometans,
are now Christians to a man, and only betray their
Moslem antecedents in such family names as Osmanid,
Abdulid, and others. En passant^ I may observe that
the instance of Udbina is extremely suggestive of a
possible reconversion of Mahometan Bosnia should it fall
once more into Christian hands ; but, what more concerns
my immediate purpose, I should never have been able to
give you some rather curious details as to the manner in
which the new Turkish Constitution is interpreted among
the Bosnian Mahometans, were it not for the peculiar
history and relations of the border villagers under notice.

The inhabitants of Udbina, though they have changed
their creed, have never ceased to keep up the closest
intercourse with their Mahometan friends and relatives
across the Bosnian frontier, and in many cases are bound
to them by that mostsacre^>and binding of all Slavonic
ties — ^the * Pohratimstvo,' or ^ Sworn Brotherhood.' Thus
a friend of mine who is a native of Udbina is * sworn-
brother ' to a Mahometan merchant of the neighbouring

LETTER
VII.

Survival of
Christian
traditions
among Ma-
hometan
Bosniacs.

Instance of
Udbina
provespossi'
biHty of re-
conversion.

THE SULTAN'S CONSTITUTIONAL TITLE.

LETTER
VIL

Reading of
new Con-
stitution.

Titles of
new Con-
siitutional
Sovereign,

Bosnian town of Kulen Vakup, and these friendly rela-
tions have not been interrupted even by the present civil
war. During a recent visit to my friend's house the
Bosnian merchant gave the following naive and unvar-
nished account of the promulgation of the Turkish Magna
Charta at Kulen Vakup, and the official explanation of
the Conference and its results.

The reading of the Constitution took place opposite
the Konak, in the presence of the inhabitants ; but, lest
they should understand a word of it, it was read by a
Turkish Effendi in Osmanli, which is as intelligible to the
native Bosnian Mahometan as so much Chinese.

The preamble and Sultan's title were, however, read
in the native language, and the grand old Bosnian im-
perial style was retained, of which I give you a literal
translation.

The- new constitutional sovereign of Bosnia, though
he does not vouchsafe to his subjects any information as
to their new liberties, is careful to remind them in their
own tongue that he is * Brother of the Sun, Unde of the
Moon, Sworn-brother (^pobratim') of all the Stars, the
Friend of Allah, the Kinsman of Mahomet, the Son of
Osman, Emperor of Emperors, King of Kings, Prince of
Princes, and Lord of the Earth unto the Sky.' *

During the reading of the Osmanli document some of
the bystanders were inconsiderate enough to ask for an
explanation of some of his longer paragraphs, but the
Eflfendi only condescended to details so far as to inform
them that * these were most comfortable words, that the

^ In the original Bosnian :

*Bratsunca stric mjesecu.pjhratim

sviju xmezda, friatelj Alahay rod-

jak svetca Muhameda, an Osma-

novt Car Careva, Kralj ICraljeva,
Knjaz Knjazeva, i Gospodar od
Zimlje do neha.'

READING OF THE TURKISH CONSTITUTION,

Sultan had given them new roads and new bridges and
new schools, — ^and that these were, indeed, most com-
fortable words.' The Mahometan inhabitants of Kulen
Vakup beard nothing that could raise the susceptibilities
of the most orthodox believer, and interrupted the vague
and soothing responses, which their inquiries from time
to time elicited, with shouts of ' Peki effendum ! ' (Hear,
hear, Effendi).

When the Constitution had been read, however, a
great native landowner of this part and commander of
the native irregulars, the Beg Tahir Kulenovid, who at
the head of his Bashi-bazouk retainers has been guilty of
some of the worst atrocities committed against the rayahs
of this neighbourhood, and who, in the complete collapse
of the Turkish bureaucracy in Southern Bosnia, is at
present almost as much an independent feudal chieftain
as was his remote ancestor the mediaeval Bosnian Ban
Culin, volunteered some more pointed commentaries on
the new Constitution and the Conference, which to any
one who does not know the extraordinary ignorance as
to the outside world displayed by the Bosnian Maho-
metans would seem hardly credible.

The Beg informed the assembled people that the
* Emperor of Emperors, King of Kings, Prince of Princes,
and Lord of all the Earth unto the Sky' had called
together the seven subject kings of Europe — (who was
the seventh?) — to Stamboul, there to signify to them his
sovereign will and pleasure as to the disturbers of the
peace in his dominions, and more especially those rayah
dogs who had fled from their lawful lords and masters ;
that he had bidden the Swabian Czar (the Emperor of
Austria) to slay all those rayah dogs who refused to
return ; that the Swabian Czar had promised to do his

LETTER
VII.

Most com-
fortablt
words*

Sofnc

fointedcom-
mentaries
on iht new
Constitu-
tion.

The seven
subject
kings of
Europe,

EQUALITY BEFORE THE LAW.

LETTER
VII.

Recrudes-
cence of
outrage
follows fro-
mulgation
of Constitu-
tion in
Bosnia,

bidding; and that, furthermore, condign justice should
be executed on those who did return for having pre-
sumed to leave their lawful lords and masters.

Grotesque as this account of the Conference and its
results will seem to my readers, it agrees exactly with the
accounts given by the Begs in other towns of Southern
Bosnia ; as, for instance, by the powerful Beg Filipovid
at Glamo§, and the agreement can hardly be purely acci-
dental. Many of the Begs openly assert that a general
massacre of the Christians still remaining in the country
forms one of the provisions of the new charta, and that
* that is the only way of rooting out rebellion from among
us.' It is an ominous coincidence that a recrudescence
of Mahometan outrage should have followed immediately
on the so-called promulgation of the new Constitution
in Bosnia ; and the proclamation of equality of both
Christian and Mussulman before the law finds a curious
commentary in the fact that the ears of several of the
rayahs lately massacred near Banjaluka have been pub-
licly exhibited in the Law Court of Turkish GradiSka.
Another direct result of the Constitution and Conference
seems to be the mania which is setting in among the
Turks of Southern and Western Bosnia for forcibly con-
verting rayahs to Islam. At GradiSka alone several in-
stances of this have just occurred. I may mention the
names of Ilija Visteka, a servant of Sali EfFendi, and his
wife. The new name imposed on him is Ali ; of Djuro
Ketzman, forcibly Moslemized to M&hmetj and Jovo
Pojpovid, now Selim.

You are aware that a few months ago a sham petition
was got up in Bosnia for transmission to Stamboul to
protest in the name of the Christian population of Bosnia
that no government could be more beneficial than the

MEMORIAL GOT UP BY TURKISH EFFENI^I

Sultan's and no subjects more contented than the Bos-
nian rayahs when not ' gpaded to revolt by foreign
agitators.

On that occasion about a hundred Christians of Ban-
jaluka refused to set their signature to a lie. Thereupon
a certain Y€\m Effendi, one of the most powerful and
ferocious of the Bosnian landowners, a man who has
done on a smaller scale in Northern Bosnia what Ahmed
and Chefket did in Bulgaria, seized on the recalcitrant
memorialists, locked them up, and subjected them to
every form of insult and intimidation till they consented
to set their signatures to the precious document which
was to gladden the eyes of Sir Henry Elliot. And this
F^im Eflfendi — whose very name is a word of terror to
the hapless Bosnian fugitives — ^has just been * elected ' to
represent Banjaluka in the Constitutional Assembly of
regenerated Turkey.

In the Herzegovina, on whose frontier I continue
this letter, affairs wear a different aspect The Osmanli
troops are massed at Stolatz and Mostar, in view of fiitmre
Montenegrin operations, and so it happens that at these
larger towns and at Trebinje the authority of the Central
Government, which in Southern Bosnia is in absolute
abeyance, still prolongs itself in a fashion under the pro-
tection of its regular troops.

The Osmanli acts in a very different manner from the
native Mahometan of Bosnia. Your true Turk would
never dream of imitating the indiscreet and inflammatory
utterances of the Bosnian Begs. It is a mistake to sup-
pose that the new Constitution is altogether disagreeable
to the Osmanli bureaucracy. Detested alike by the
Bosnian Mahometans and the Bosnian Christians, these
alien officials hope to prolong their rule in the province,

LETTER
VII.

FHm Ef-
fendi and
the recalci'
trant me-
morialisis.

Different
aspect of
affairs in
larger Her-
zegovinian
towns.

USEFULNESS OF SHAM CONSTITUTIONALISM.

LETTER
VII.

The

Osmanli
bureau-
cracy and
the new
Constitu-
tion.

A new
form of
electoral
intimida-
tion.

as they have done hitherto, by adroitly manipulating the
divisions of the natives. Divide et impera is the motto
of the Turkish bureaucrat in Bosnia, who knows that if
Greek, Latin, and Mahometan were to patch up their
differences he would be hounded out of the country to-
morrow. And the Stamboul officials are shrewd enough
to perceive that a sham constitutionalism, which perpe-
tuates in the law courts and imposes, as a sine qua non
of office, the use of a language * not understood of the
people, * may be manipulated to the advantage of officials
whose mother tongue is Turkish. And so it happens
that the Osmanli bureaucracy is jubilant over the new
Constitution, and that, under the protection of the bayo-
nets of the Nizam at Mostar and elsewhere, this precious
document has been promulgated even in the native
language. At Mostar, where consular supervision has
also to be taken into account, these enlightened employh
of the Turkish Government have seized on and forcibly
elected a Christian merchant as deputy for the capital of
Herzegovina. The unfortunate Bilid, who was anything
but ambitious of this unexpected honour, was so far in-
timidated that he dared not refuse it at Mostar, and was
accordingly packed off to Stamboul by way of Ragusa.
The instant, however, he set foot on Christian soil he
despatched a letter to Mostar resigning his seat, and,
fearing to return, is at present a refugee at Ragusa.^
Truly, it remained for the Turks to discover this new
form of electoral intimidation I

Meanwhile the Mahometan population of Herzegovina
are becoming more and more dissatisfied with the first fruits
of the new rigime. Among the merchants of the towns

* He was, however, afterwards induced to continue his journey toi
Constantinople.

MAHOMETAN REFUGEES AT RAGUSA.

ruin has been sown broadcast by an enormous influx of
paper money ; the little town of Trebinje alone has been
flooded with a new paper currenqr to the amount of 1 00,000
piastres. In the district of Trebinje, indeed, nothing but
the neighbourhood of the Turkish Nizam has prevented
Mahometan discontent from bursting into open revolt.
According to the law the heads of families are exempted
from military service, but the Kaimakam of Trebinje has
been attempting to extort large sums of money, in some
cases as much as 1,000 florins, from the heads of the
richest Mahometan famiHes in lieu of military service.
Upon their appeal, the tyrant tried to seize and imprison
them, but has not been able to set hands on more than a
dozen. The rest, to the number of over a hundred, and
among them several Begs and influential landholders,
have fled, and during the last few days no less than
seventy Mahometan refugees have arrived at Ragusa.
Even as I write I hear of fresh arrivals. They are ap-
pealing to Stamboul for redress.

LETTER
VII.

Mahometan
discontent
in Herze-
govina,

LETTER VIII.

THROUGH THE LIKA.

LETTER
VIII.

Start with
a relief
party of
Miss Iris's.

Relief party of Miss Irby's waylaid by custom-house officials, Snmoed-up
on Mount Velebid. A forest wrecked. Across the Lika. The Waters
of Knowledge. Ancient castles and dragon rock. UdHna. Relics
of Mahometan times. ' Bajaxefs grave.' The silent forces at toork
in favour of South Slavonic unity. Isolation of Catholic Croats and
their artificial nationality. Austro-Hungarian subjuts looking
towards Montenegro. Final solution of the Eastern Question post-
poned. Impossibility of Montenegro becoming nucleus of South
Slavonic State. Will Austria? *

HAVE already sent you a telegraphic summary
of the deplorable outrages perpetrated by the
Turks on the unfortunate Bosnian refugees
who were driven by misery to make a trial of
Turkish promises, and rebuilt their burnt houses at
O^ievo. I write this on my way to penetrate, if possible,
to the scene of the massacre, as well as personally to
obtain the evidence of the witnesses of the outrages who
have succeeded in finding their way back to Christian
soil. I have accompanied to the frontier village where I
write this a relief expedition which the unflagging energy
of the English ladies (Miss Irby and Miss Johnston) has
despatched to bear food and clothing to the hitherto
terribly neglected Bosnian refugees of this part of the
Croatian frontier ; and I am sorry to have to add that I

HATRED OF MAGYARS AGAINST THE SLAVS,

have been a witoess to an act of official barbarity which
has gone far to render the efforts of English charity
unavailing.

A weary eight hours' drive from Zara brought me to
Obbrovazzo, in Dalmatia, from which place our party
started to ascend the snowy ridge of Mount Velebid,
which forms the barrier between Dalmatia and Croatia,
and between the Austrian and Himgarian divisions of the
Hapsburg monarchy.

Just before descending from the cold plateau of this
wildest and nakedest of mountains, our wagons, contain-
ing the clothes and coverings for the refugees, were
stopped at the truly alpine Custom-house which here
marks the Hungarian frontier and bars the main pass
between Dalmatia and Croatia.

You are aware that it has long become a principle of
the comity of nations in the presence of great and national
distress for civilized Governments to forego those customs'
regulations which stand in the way of foreign assistance
to the sufferers. Acting on this principle, the Austrian
Government has allowed the clothes and woollens sent
from England for the Bosnian refugees to pass free of
customs. But in the Hungarian half of the monarchy it
is far otherwise. The Magyars, in their blind hatred of
the Slavs, whose eventual freedom threatens to stand in
the way of their own domination, seem to have forgotten
— I will not say the received usages of civilized nations,
but the most ordinary dictates of humanity. My readers
know by this time how Magyar officers and officials con-
sented to remain silent as to impalements and other
atrocities of which they had themselves been witnesses,
and which were only at length exposed by the chance
experience of English travellers. But my readers do

LETTER
VIII.

Relief expe-
dition to
Bosnian
refugees
thwarted by
Magyar
custom-
house
officials.

WAYLAID BY CUSTOM-HOUSE OFFICIALS.

LETTER
VIII.

Humanity
of the

Hungarian
Govern-
ment /

not know that only the other day, when fresh Turkish
atrocities, of which I have already given some account,
drove new bodies of Bosnian rayahs across the Hungarian
frontier by Novi and elsewhere, the few cattle that these
homeless fugitives had succeeded in taking with them
were seized by the Magyar officials on the plea that they
must have stolen them from the Turks 1 And so it is
that, in spite of the example set by the Austrian half of
the monarchy, and in spite of the most urgent entreaties
and representations, the Government of the Magyar con-
tinues to exact the uttermost farthing of a protectionist
tariff at the expense of its naked and destitute Bosnian
suppliants.

To judge by what took place on this occasion, the
officials have . orders to be peculiarly rigorous in their
treatment of goods sent for the benefit of the refugees ;
at least it is hardly credible that their manner of investi-
gation was normal in its character.

Our wagons, contaimng clothes and woollens from
England, were overhauled in the most ruthless manner
conceivable. Any one who had come up during the
process would have supposed that we were being plun-
dered by a gang of brigands ! The scene almost baffles
description. Every sack was ripped open, and prodded
and pierced besides in a most barbarous fashion by
pointed instruments of iron. Shirts, flannels, blankets,
clothes of every kind were flung about the road; and,
after a weary process of weighing and calculating, a sum
so exorbitant was demanded for the warmest clothes
despatched from England, that, in the impossibility ot
paying it, seven hundred woollen articles that were to
have clad the shivering women and children who have
sought refuge in the mountainous borderlands of Christen-

SNOWED'UP ON MOUNT VELEBld.

dom had to be sent back down the steeps of Mount
Velebic into Dalmatia !

And here it is still winter — snow mountains on either
side, and this evening a cruel bora, that chills one to the
bone through warmer clothing than the wretched fugitives
could ever hope to wear.

Winter — ^and what winter ! The blue sky and bluer
sea, the waving palms and budding myrtles, the fragrant
jonquils, rosemary, and wallflowers, just beginning to
perfume the rocky shores of Ragusa and the Dalmatian
islands, are already a dream of the past! This Lika
district on whose mountainous margin I had arrived has
well been called the * Croatian Siberia ' ! You may like
to hear how 1 was snowed up in a littie hut, which serves
as a kind of hospice on the Croatian side of Velebid The
snow began overnight and continued all day, shrouding in
a cold sheet of white the lilac crocuses that had ventured
too trustingly to woo the eye of spring on the mountain
lawns. Towards evening a change took place in the
storm ; the snow turned into a kind of sleet, which, freez-
ing as it fell, sheathed every branch and twig in 'over
half an inch of ice. The hut I was in was in the middle
of a forest, and as the sleet continued during the night
one branch gave way under the weight of ice and then
another, till crash followed crash in such quick succession
that it sounded like the roar of artillery around, inter-
rupted as the lesser branches gave way with sharp,
snapping, explosive noises, like pistol shots at close
quarters. The spectacle next morning was stupendous !
The whole forest was wrecked! There is no other
word that will describe, it. The whole ground was
covered waist-high with pkles of fallen branches ; spread-
ing forest queens had been stripped till they were mere

LETTER

yiii.

The

Croatian

Siberia.

forest
rreckcd.

A LEGENDARY LAND.

LETTER
VIII.

Frozen
fountains.

Illyriah
scenery and
legends.

The Foun-
tain of
Wisdom,

naked trunks — mutilated torsos. Fragile trees had been
crushed — Tarpeia-like,but with a girdling weight of crystal.
Tender saplings and trees of more elastic growth had
been simply bowed down, like weeping willows, their
slender sprays poured down towards mother earth in taper
icicles, till every tree looked like a frozen fountain ! Or
here and there at turns on the mountain-side the wind
had curved, and clawed, and twisted the crystal fingers
in fantastic bends, and sometimes seemed to have spun
them out in as many graceful waves as the river rack
takes in the current of a stream, but these quite motion,
less. When the sun shone out through the clouds and the
frozen fountains glittered in its light and twinkled with a
myriad prismatic hues — then, indeed, it was a vision of
enchantment !

But I have descended from the mountains whose ridge
acts as a wall between such opposite climates and holds
South and North * in eternal divorce.'

I reached Udbina, where I write this after a da)r's
joumey^through a strange, wild land, part of the great
lUyrian desert, with its scattered oases of fertility,
^ chaotic rocks, underground rivers, and mysterious
caverns ; a country — ^as everywhere in Ill)nia — ^present-
ing the most starding contrasts of nakiAness and cul-
tivation, and rich in folk-lore and romance, which seem
to reproduce the alternating grimness and beauty of the
landscape.

Every churchyard we pass is haunted with those
ghostly creations of Slavonic and Oriental phantasy, the
Vukodlaks, or vampires. But the local mythology takes
in turn a more airy and enticing form. At St. Roch we
passed a little roadside spring welling from a stone basin
known to the Lika folk as the * Fountain of Wisdom,'

PEAK CASTLES AND DRAGON ROCK.

and paused to refresh ourselves with the Waters of Know-
ledge. On a mountain side to the south of Udbina
another fountain— of healing— springs from the snow, and
the peasants say that once upon a time the angels danced
the *kolo' (the national Slavonic dance) on the snow above,
and that next morning was seen the circle of celestial
footprints. So every year the sick of Udbina and the
neighbourhood make a pilgrimage thither on the eve of
July 24, bathe in the holy stream, and pass the night
beside it Next morning comes the Greek priest and
says mass, and the cure is perfected.

On a peak to the south rises the ruined stronghold of
the Counts of the Lika, the last of whom, John of Kar-
lovitz, was chased away by the Turks in the seventeenth
century ; and the peasants tell still of strange fruits and
flowers that grow where once their lord's garden smiled.
To the west stretch the forests of the Kuk Planina ; and
on a peak beyond, known as the * Green Mountain,' the
foimdations of another ancient castle are traceable, as to
whose origin even tradition fails. Beetling above this
looms a mysterious rock, under which explosions as of a
pistol shot have been heard from time to time by
frightened shepherds. Woe indeed to the flocks and
herds that stray too near that ill-omened spot! The
shepherds say that a dragon is coiled below keeping
watch and ward over the gold hoard which beyond doubt
lies hidden within, and that eyery living creatiure that
approaches the monster's den is blasted by his poisonous
breath. Sheep or oxen, they say, that have strayed too
near the rock have often been found next morning stiff and
starL And, should any one wish to peer beyond the dra-
gon's rock still further to the west, he may catch a glimpse of
an even more uncanny mountain-hollow, where lies the

LETTER
VIII.

Haunted
springs.

Castle of tfu
old Counts
of the Lika.

The

dragon's

rock.

BAJAZETS TOMB,

LETTER
VIII.

Jn the old

Military

Frontier.

Bajazefs
tomb.

Czemo Jezero, or Black Pool, whose depths no mortal
man has fathomed.

Nor is it only from its haunted hollows and dragon-
guarded peaks and fairy legends that this neighbourhood
is profoundly interesting. Udbina lies in the Lika divi-
sion of the old Military Frontier which Hapsburg Em-
peror-Kings formed centuries ago as a kind of political
sea-wall against the then encroaching tide of Islim. A
few years ago commenced that process of transition which
soon will cause this old mihtary organization, which con-
verted every peasant into a militiaman, to be numbered
among the institutions of the past. The days- of
Mahometan conquest are over, and while the Austrian
watch-houses on this side of the frontier fall to rack and
ruin, it is the Turks who are building new ones on the
Bosnian side in fear of Christian encroachments.

But though the Military Frontier has passed or is pass-
ing away \vnth the circumstances that necessitated it, one
is reminded at every step that one stands on land re-
claimed from the Crescent.

On the peak above Udbina Church rise the ruins of
a Turkish ' kula,' or fortress. Below Udbina Hill is a
small rakish-looking Roman Catholic chapel, which at
once excites suspicions as to its antecedents, and, in fact,
parts of it once belonged to a mosque. Near it is a heap
of stones upon a slight mound overgrown with thorns,
and one of the village elders assured me that it was
Bajazet's tomb. The Turks, it seems, still hold this spot
in peculiar veneration, and, extraordinary as it may seem,
Mahometan pilgrims still come from beyond the Bosnian
border to pray at the reputed tomb of their warrior-saint,
interred in what is now the soil of Christendom. The
villagers told me that in old times a head was preserved

MAHOMETANS RE-CONVERTED TO CHRISTIANITY,

in the chapel which was the cause of great strife among
the adherents of the three creeds who dispute for mastery
in these lands. The Catholics said the head was St.
Mark's, the Pravoslavs claimed it for St. Paul, and the
Bosnian Turks swore by the beard of the Prophet that it
was Bajazefs !

The Udbiners themselves are, as I have already
mentioned in a previous letter, mostly descendants of
Mahometan families who, on the Christian re-conquest of
the district at the end of the seventeenth century, con-
sented to submit to the rite of baptism — just as, two
centuries before, the forefathers of the same villagers had
consented to receive the faith of Islim from the Turkish
conqueror. They still retain in many cases their Maho-
metan family names ; they still keep up friendly relations
wdth a few Mahometan connections beyond the border.
But their sympathies, like those of all true Likaners, are
entirely with the rayahs. Among the people of the Lika
generally the memories of Turkish rule are still fresh,
and their hereditary hatred of the oppressor still intense.
Many a brave band of these borderers has crossed the
frontier to aid the insurgents at a pinch — ay, and if occa-
sion offers, many are prepared to do so again.

Nor is it easy for the Hungarian Government to
prevent such incursions when the whole border popula-
tion is in league with these practical sympathisers. Any
one who wants to realise how intense are the passions
which the wrongs of their brothers beyond the border
rouse among the neighbouring Slavonic populations ; how
mighty are the silent forces at work in favour of South
Slavonic unity and liberation ; how vain is the legerde-
main of diplomacy and the sand-ropes of statesmen, who
see Governments and nothing beyond Governments; and,

LETTER
VIII,

Re-conver-
sion of Ma-
hometan
Udbiners to
Christi-
anity,

Hereditary

hatred of

Turks

among

Slavonic

border

population.

PROGRESS OF SOUTH SLAVONIC NATIONALITY.

LETTER
VIII.

Silent
forces at
work in
favour of
South
Slavonic
unity.

lastly, how artificial and unstable is the present political
organisation of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, and this
precious dualism, devised by Count Beust to divide the
empire between a minority of Germans and Magyars, and
to exclude that Slavonic majority which gains every day
in numbers, wealth, and culture — ^any one, I say, who
wishes to realise all this should wander as I have wan-
dered amongst these border populations, and should talk
as I have talked with peasant, burgher, and soldier.

Even in Agram, the capital of Croatia, it is easy for
the foreigner to deceive himself, for there is a portion of
the Croats proper who, owing partly to historical causes,
partly to the fact that they are Catholics and under the
denationalising influence of the Romish priesthood, hold
themselves aloof firom the aspirations of their Serbian
kinsmen of the Greek Church.

But — and I have never yet seen this most pregnant
fact pointed out — over half the * Grenze,' the old military
frontier of Croatia, containing the most warlike and not
the least civilised part of the population, is peopled by
what is, in fact, a separate and purely Serbian nationality,*

nounced ' Kai,' 'da,' and ' Sto,
the divisions being named ICaJ-
kavltina, CakavStina, and Stokav-
Itina, The ' langue de Kai ' lies
to the north-west, and approaches
the Slovene area and language,
its prevalence being due to earlier
Slovene settlements in these dis-
tricts ; the counties of Agram,
Varasdin, Kreutz, and Belovar are
its strongholds. Generally to the
east of this ^is the area of the
'langue de Sto;' to the south,
that of the ' langue de ia.'

^ By Serbian nationality is
meant rather a difference in
political tendencies and religion
than in blood or language. The
Croats themselves belong to the
Serbian branch of the Slavs, and
their language is almost identical
with that spoken in the Serbian
States beyond the border. Three
dialects are, however, to be noted
among them, and their language
has been divided into three divi-
sions, according to the word
employed for the interrogative
'what?' which is variously pro-

'NATIONAL' CATHOLICS.

mostly adherents of the Greek Church, descendants' of
Serbian refugees who at diflferent times have fled from
the Serbian provinces — Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Rascia
— under Turkish yoke. Even when, as sometimes hap-
pens, this immigrant population professes Roman Catho-
licism, their Romanism takes a peculiarly national form.
Mass is read, not in Latin, as among the Croats proper,
but in their own vernacular ; their priests are free from
offensive sacerdotalism, and resemble more the Greek
* popes.' Here at Udbina are some of these * national '
Catholics. Yesterday was a great feast-day among them,
the merry-making being preceded by mass ; but I was a
little surprised and not a little amuse'd to see his Reve-
rence bustle out with his congregation, form a ring for
the national * kolo ' dance, seize two buxom lasses by the
waist, and join, as lustily as ecclesiastical vestments would
allow, in the merry-go-round I

What I have said of the political relations in Croatia
is to a great extent true of Dalmatia, except that in
Dalmatia there is a small so-called * autonomous ' party
in some of the coast cities, who speak Italian, dream of
union with Italy, and eschew everything Slav. But these
are a small and insignificant minority. Of the Slavonic-
speaking population, which, with this small exception,
occupies the whole country, the majority is certainly
Catholic ; and a certain proportion of the Catholics are
here, as in Croatia, lukewarm towards the South Slavonic
cause, and content themselves with aiming at the union
of Croatia, Slavonia, and Dalmatia, and the formation of
some small kingdom which they could call Catholic and
Croatian.

But in Dalmatia, as here in Croatia, it is the Serbs —
the Greek Church or Pravoslav population — ^who hold

LETTER
VIII.

Serbs of the
Austro-
Hungarian
'Grmze:

Aims of
parties in
Dalmatia.

F 2

ATTITUDE OF GREEK AND ROMAN CHURCHES.

LETTER
VIII.

That the
Serbs atone
hold the
future df
Illyria in
theirhands.

Austria
and the
Serbs.

the future of the country in their hands. There, as here,
it is the Serbs, and the Serbs alone, who are inspired by
those motives and passions that are capable of deciding
the destinies of nations. Call it patriotism, call it Pan-
slavism, call it faith, or call it fanaticism, the motive force
is there, and it is irresistible. Roman Catholicism damps
the patriotic aspirations of its adherents in these parts as
much as possible ; the Greek Church fans them and
intensifies them. The Catholic Croats and Dalmatians
have little beyond a negative policy — vague and halting.
The Serbs are animated by every sympathy of race and
religion, and their object is as definite as it is grand — the
eventual union of all South Slavonic peoples in a free
State of their own. The Catholic Croats have no allies,
even among their own kinsmen and co-religionists ; the
Serbs of Dalmatia and Croatia look not only to their
brothers of the Black Mountain, of free Serbia, and of the
former Serbian Vojvodina in Hungary, and to the Serb
populations still under the Turkish yoke — ^but to their
Catholic kinsmen, the Chesks of Bohemia and Moravia,
and the Slovenes of St)nria, Carinthia, and Camiola, who,
unlike the Croats, forget religious differences in common
SUvonic patriotism. And there is another ally in the
north more powerful than these, and united by ties of
religion as well as blood.

People here are already privately discussing the pos-
sibilities of a Serbian revolt in Dalmatia, the Bocche di
Cattaro, and the Croatian mountains in the event of a
war between Austria and Russia. That such a war is at
present imminent seems to me extremely unlikely. That
Austrian interests must eventually clash with Russian
seems to me certain. Till that day arrives the final
solution of the Eastern Question is by mutual accommo-

POSSIBILITIES OF GREAT SOUTH SLAVONIC STATE. 69

dation postponed. And when that day arrives it will be
well for Austria, and well for Europe, if she has made her
peace with her own Slavonic subjects, and sapped by con-
ciliatory means the solidarity to-day existing between the
Serbs and Russians. Meanwhile, however, I should like
to ask the Austrian ambassador at the court of St James's
and the gypsy premier of Hungary one seemingly trivial
question, — ^why it is that so many of the loyal subjects of
his Imperial, Royal, and Apostolic Majesty in Dalmatia
and Croatia wear caps on which the initials of Prince Nikola
of little Montenegro are embroidered in golden letters ?

No ! those dreams at any rate are vain. Montenegro
is too small even to become the nucleus of a great South
Slavonic state. Austria, it must be confessed, is the only
Southern state at present existing that can weld into unity
that perplexed array of petty principalities and rival pro-
vinces, with their sub-nationalities and antagonistic reli-
gions. It does not require a prophet's eye to perceive that
Austria can only exist as a Slavonic power ; but if her
statesmen wait till they are summoned to surrender, as
surrender sooner or later they must, their German pro-
vinces, before they retreat upon the south and east, then
they will have waited too late. Her Slavonic provinces —
what the German had left of them, that is — might aggre-
gate themselves indeed to some vague Confederation of
the Danube or the Balkan, but what paramount power
could give that political union which must be the pre-
lude to national unity ? In ten years Russia might be on
the Adriatic as well as the -^gean, and the Serbian Con-
federation have become another Poland ! And yet what
Austria is asked to do to-day is no light thing. If the
Hapsburgs wish to take up the Imperial crown of
Serbian Czars, they must break with their Roman Catholic

LETTER
VIII.

Bitter re

pugnance of
Serbian
papulation
to Austrian
govern-
ment.

Montenegro

too small to

become

nucleus of

South

Slavonic

Power.

Will
Austria f

WILL AUSTRIA ACCEPT HER DESTINY?

LETTER
VIII.

traditions, they must quarrel with the aristocratic minority
of Magyars which forms the ruling caste in Hungary, —
although for the Magyars one thing is certain, they can
obtain better terms from a South Slavonic state than from
Russia. All this requires political self-abnegation such
as few governments could practise. Will Austria accept
her destiny ? Will she stoop to conquer ? These are
questions about which no patriotic Englishman who de-
sires the consolidation of a strong South Slavonic power
as a bulwark against our rival in the East, can afford to
be unconcerned.

LETTER IX.

ON THE SCENE OF TURKISH OUTRAGES.

Resolution to examine personally into recent outrages committed by the
Turks in Southern Bosnia. A difficult journey. Forced to swim the
Unnatz. The ashes of Great and Little OSievo. Savage havoc.
' The Turks! the Turks!' Two days of murder and rapine. A
house-community of fugitives. Murder of Stephen Rodid. Exami-
nation of a little maiden. Massctcre at Klekovatza. Fate of the
women. The only remedy, — Austrian occupation.

Lapatz, Bosnian-Croatian Frontier : April la.

HAVE succeeded in penetrating to the scene of
the worst outrages that during the last few weeks
have been committed by the Turks on returned
and returning refugees in Southern Bosnia, as
well as on other peaceful rayah villagers who had never
left their homes. Besides visiting the burnt and plun-
dered homesteads, I have spent several diys in hunting
up the fugitives themselves, part of whom have found
shelter in the mountain villages beyond the Croatian
^ frontier, and part within the hospitable limits of Free
Bosnia. And let it be well understood, for the Turks
and their admirers will not be slow to seize on any imagi-
nary palliation for their villany, that all the outrages of
which I write have been committed outside the hmits of
the district held by the insurgents ; that they have been

LETTER
IX.

Personal

investiga-
tion into
recent
outrages.

ON 7'HE WAY TO THE BURNT VILLAGES.

LETTER
IX.

Evidence
taken of 21
rayahs.

Difficulties
in my path.

committed solely on unarmed men and helpless women
and children ; and, further, that they cannot be looked
on as a retaliation for any violence committed by the
insurgents, inasmuch as the insurrection has during the
whole winter, and, in fact, ever since Despotovid took
the command, remained strictly on the defensive.

I have taken down the evidence of twenty-one of the
victims, choosing generally fathers of families for the
purpose j and as I saw these at different places, some
on Austro- Hungarian and some on insurgent territory,
and as on all material points the evidence is singularly
corroborative, I think you may rely on the accuracy of
my report.

I will leave what new experiences I gained of the in-
surgents and their territory for another letter, and will
proceed at once to the end and object of my personal
investigation — the burnt villages of Great and Little
O^ievo. After examining several of the refugees at Serb,
on the Croatian frontier, and others at different places
among the mountains of Free Bosnia (among which with
this object I have made a four days' march), I started
from Sienitza Grad, the extreme outpost of the insurgents
in this direction, to make my way, if possible, to the
actual scene of the Ocievo outrages.

As there was a spice of adventure about this under-
taking, it may interest my readers to know some of the
straits to which I was reduced.

In the insurgent camp at Sienitza Grad every one
conspired to dissuade me from my project. They said
that, though the ruins of OCievo were deserted by the
Turks, marauding bands of Bashi-bazouks still lurked in
the neighbourhood, and that only two days ago some
haystacks on a height above the villages, which had

ADVENTURES ON THE WAY,

hitherto escaped, had been burnt by these gentry. Then
the elements were unfavourable. It was necessary to
enter the Turkish parts of Bosnia to cross the Unnatz,
but the rain and melting snow had so swollen the river,
always rapid, that the fords had become impracticable,
and to try to swim it was, in the opinion of all the assem-
bled Bosniacs, sheer madness.

However, go I must and go I would ; so, climbing
down the somewhat precipitous rocks to the river, I
divested myself of the greater part of my apparel, put a
notebook and a few necessaries in my hat, and, leaving
clothes, revolver, and other impediments to the charge of
the astonished Bosniacs, made the fatal plunge. The
intense cold was far more dangerous than the current ;
but Father Unnatz was propitious, and I did succeed in
reaching the opposite shore ; and after a period of en-
forced inactivity on the bank, started without guides or
guards, and in a singularly primaeval condition, to find my
way as best I might to the burnt villages, over the moun-
tains of Bashi-bazouk-land.

As often happens to travellers on such occasions, I
lost my way, and was stumbling on among rocks and
stunted pinewoods, pretty well exhausted, when I heard
something very like a war-whoop below, which under the
circumstances was hardly reassuring. However, on re-
connoitring I found that the sounds proceeded from a
brave Bosnian rayah, a native of Ocievo, who had been
roused by my example to swim the Unnatz and volunteer
his services as a guide to the burnt villages.

After a weary ascent and partial descent of a moun-
tain neck, we arrived at the scene of the outrages, and I
found that all that the various witnesses had described to
me touching the destruction of property was strictly true.

LETTER
IX.

Forced to
swim the
Unnatz.

HIDEOUS SCENES OF HAVOC,

LETTER
IX.

The ashes
of the two
villages.

A more hideous scene of havoc I have never seen and
never wish to see again. Two homesteads alone re-
mained unbumt, saved from destruction, it is supposed,
by their Mahometan landlords ; but even these were
partially wrecked and entirely gutted. All the other
houses were burnt to the ground, though here and there
one or two of the wickerwork storehouses for maize usual
among the Bosnians had been merely rifled of their con-
tents, and not further destroyed ; — the Turks had provi-
dently left a few of the hives to be refilled !

What made the havoc even more melancholy was its
twofold character. There were first the blackened
foundations of the homesteads burnt the other day with
the fresh smell of fire upon them ; and side by side with
these the debris of the former village, burnt by Turks on
the 24th of June of last year. The foundations of the
former homesteads were larger as well as more numerous
than those of the huts which the returning refugees had
ventured to rebuild, and formed a striking commentary
on the straitened circumstances of these unfortunate
people. In the former village there were, if my informa-
tion is correct, over forty families. In the village, or
rather two villages, just destroyed I reckoned twenty -one
burnt huts and two unbumt, which agrees with the
number of families mentioned to me by name by a variety
of witnesses. '

The havoc was of the most thoroughgoing kind.
Every little article of domestic use that had not been
carried off — pots, pans, rags of sacking and clothes — were
scattered about pell-mell, broken, torn, and trampled
under foot. Here and there maize or beans had been
scattered on the ground in the process of carrying the
plunder off. To discover the little hoards of money

^THE TURKS! THE TURKS r

which the rayah families might possess, the pillagers had
in many cases grubbed up the earth-floor of the huts, and
in one I saw the actual hole from which the hoard of the
most well-to-do family — ^amounting, so my guide declared,
to 8/. in paper money, but this is probably an exaggera-
tion — ^had been grubbed out by the Bashi-bazouks.

We had already explored the ruins of the upper village,
or Greater O^ievo, and were surveying those of the lower
village from a height above, when my Bosnian guide,
with the quick instinct of a savage, sank down on hands
and knees behind a rock, and, pointing to a partially
wooded mountain side beyond, whispered to me, * Turski 1
Turski ! ' (* The Turks, the Turks ! '). From the nature of
the ground there was no difficulty in concealing ourselves,
but we thought it wise to effect a retrograde motion, and
pursued the same path which the fugitive villagers had
taken on a similar but more urgent occasion. I found
here plenty of traces of the stampede of the unfortunate
villagers ; on a thorn-bush part of a woman's clothing,
and the remains of a family chest thrown down in the
hurry of flight, but rifled -now of its contents, whatever
they may have been. I also picked up some Turkish
cartridges— like all the ammunition that has fallen into
the hands of the insurgents at different times, of American
fabric ; and, nearing the river, the hoof-marks of the
pursuing Bashi-bazouks were still visible on the turf. We
then followed the Unnatz river to a point higher up
where the Bosnian thought there might be a ford prac-
ticable from this side ; and in one way or another, after
about a quarter of an hour's struggle through the torrent
and over the shallows, finally found ourselves once more
on the left bank.

I will now give you the results of the evidence I have

LETTER
IX.

Investiga-
tions in
LittU
Oiievo in-
terrupted by
appearance
of Bashi-
bazouks^

Traces of

stampede

villagers.

THE STORY OF OdiEVO.

LETTER
IX.

Names of
witnesses.

The story of
Odievo.

collected from the victims as to the actual occurrences at
Great and Little OCievo and two other hamlets situated
in the neighbouring Cerljevitza mountains — ^namely, Kle-
kovatza and Vaganatz.

Regarding the Ocievo outrages I have examined
thirteen witnesses. Three of these — David, Militza, and
Anja Karanovi<5 — I saw at Serb, on the Croatian border ;
one, Gregor Pavi<5i<5, at Lapatz, also within the Grenze ;
nine — namely, Lazar Sipka, Vid Rodid, Giuro Sipka,
Milan Rodi(5, Milan Karanovid, Jovan Tankosid, Stefan
Karanovid, Mihailo Rodid, and Bla2 Karanovid — at
Sienilza Grad, in Free Bosnia ; and the wife of the
murdered Vaso Karanovid, at BoboljuSa, also in Free
Bosnia.

On the approach of the Turks on June 24 of 1876
the villagers fled mostly to Austrian soil, leaving
their homes to be burnt and pillaged. The extreme
misery, however, of the refugees on this part of the
Hungarian frontier, the approach of winter, and the im-
possibility of procuring fodder for the cattle they had
succeeded in carrying with them induced the fugitives to
crave permission to return from their Mahometan land-
lords — namely, Mujo Kurtaghid, Osman Aga Andjid, and
Nedjim and Ismail Begs Kulenovid, all resident in Kulen
Vakup.

The Begs, who are beginning to suffer severely from
the want of serfs to supply their needs, promised the
O^ievers that if they returned they should be unmolested,
and accordingly most of the families actually did return,
and rebuilt their burnt cottages.^

1 The names of the heads of
the various families who returned
and the numbers of each family

were given me, as follows: — David
Karanovid, 17; Damian Karanovid,
19 : Djuro Karanovid, 4 ; Vaso

FIRST DAY'S OUTRAGES,

On Saturday, March lo, a body of Bashi-bazouks,
estimated by the villagers at about a hundred, under the
leadership of Ali Beg Trovka, Mujo Beg Bibanovid, and
Ali Beg Kulenovid (who, however, arrived rather late in
the day), made their appearance in the lower village.
They plundered the house and bam of David Karanovid,
seized all his com, the clothing they found in the house,
and, if his deposition made to me is correct, took from him
and his house-community 45 goats, about 50 sheep, 18
oxen, and one horse. They robbed in the same way
three other families. They then proceeded to the house
of the village elder or Knez, the elected representative of
the community, who receives a kind of official seal from
the Turkish authorities. What follows I have from his
wife. A Bashi-bazouk seized him on either side, while a
third despatched him with pistol shots. Another member
of the family, Teto Karanovid, was wounded in the arm,
but escaped. The head of the murdered Knez, Vaso
Karanovid, was then cut off and carried away. The
women and girls were stripped of the girdles and other
ornaments that they possessed, and the irregulars were
proceeding to outrages of a more shameful kind when
stopped by the timely arrival of Ali Beg Kulenovid, who
succeeded on this occasion in restraining his retainers.
The Turks then made off with their booty to Kulen
Vakup, carrying with them in triumph the head of the
village elder.

Another of my witnesses, Gregor Pavidic, of Boride-

Djuro Sipka, 6 \ Nikola Sipka, 12 ;
Pero §ipka, 6 ; Luka Rodid, 8 ;
Milan Tankosid, 11 ; David
Tankosid, 8 ; MUi Tankosi<5, 5 ;
Bla2 St^nid, 8; Mili Stdnid, 8:

•Better

I IX.

Otievo
attacked by
Bashi-
batouks.

Karanovid, 7; Parro Karanovid,
8 ; Mili Karanovid, 7 ; Ilija Kara-
novid, 6 ; Blaf Karanovid, 11 ;
Trifan Saiatz, 13 ; P^ro §aratz, 2 ;
Mihailo Rodid, 11; Vid Rodid, 27;
Marko Sipka, 17; Obrad Sipka, 10;

Murder oj
a village
elder.

total, 231.

SECOND DATS OUTRAGES,

LETTER
IX.

Second
arrival of
the Turks.

The village
given up to
indiscrimi-
nate plun-
der and
rapine.

Girls and

women

outraged.

vatz, who, though a Christian, is employed on various
errands across the Croatian border by the Turks of Kulen
Vakup, happened to be there when the murderous gang
returned. The Mudir said that it was no use kicking the
head about the streets, and that they had better give it
to the Giaour to bury, which he accordingly did.

Meanwhile it was mooted that night in Ocievo
whether to fly at once or not; but the weather was
bitterly cold. A fierce ' bora,' the tempestuous nor'-nor'-
easter of lUyria, was blowing, and the snow lay deep ; so
it was decided to put off their departure.

Next day, Sunday, the Turks appeared again, but in
larger numbers. According to all accounts, there were
firom 200 to 300 Redifs, and from 400 to 500 Bashi-
bazouks. The leaders were the Kaimakam of Petrovatz,
the Turkish Prefect, and the supreme Government official
of the district ; while AH Trovka and Ali Kulenovid
represented the Begs. The troops came from Kulen
Vakup, Petrovatz, and Bielaj.

Then followed a scene of indiscriminate plunder and
rapine. An attempt was made to seize the house-fathers
of the village, but, warned by the fate of their Knez, they
all succeeded in escaping. Many of the girls and women,
however, fell into the hands of the marauders ; the girdles
and ornaments were torn from those who still pos'sessed
them ; the more youthful among them were set apart for
a worse fate. According to the lovest estimate, ten of
them fell victims to Turkish lust ; according to the wife
of the village elder, who probably knew more than the
men, who on this subject were very reticent, about fifteen.
Pity and shame made the men loth to mention the names,
and I would not press this point.

The Turks pursued the refugees to the Unnatz, firing

PLUNDER AND RAPINE,

on them on the way ; and the cartridges that I picked
up formed a striking corroboration of this part of the
evidence. The river was happily then low and easily
fordable, but the pursuers came up with some women
and children on the bank, and flung Simeona §ipka, a
young woman, and a child, Vid Sipka, into the water.
Both of them, however, were saved. Another woman,
with child, was seized, and was so terrified that she gave
birth prematurely. The Turks did not attempt to pursue
beyond the Unnatz, fearing to enter insurgent territory.
After burning the two villages, they made off laden with
all the stores and movables on which they had been able
to lay their hands, and with large droves of cattle also
taken from the villagers. The total number of animals
carried oflf by them, as nearly as I could arrive at it, was
450 sheep and goats, 55 oxen, and 27 horses.

The villagers took refuge partly on Austrian and
partly on Free Bosnian territory, and some of the men
have gone to swell the ranks of the insurgents. The day
after the flight two small children of Vid Rodid, by names
Jovan and Sargen, were missed, and were sought for
next day among the ruins of the now deserted village.
They were found at last, dead and frozen on the snow.

At Bobolju§a, on a mountain on the left bank of the
Unnatz, I found a miserable family of refugees from
O^ievo, or rather a family community, for there were
three families there, but only one house-father — seventeen
of them crowded into a wretched shed. Seven or eight
of them were children, and in the middle lay a little lad
of about five prostrate with small-pox. They had only
provisions for a few days. I was able to give them a
reprieve from hunger from a small fund at my disposal
— ^but what could save the other children from infection ?

LETTER
IX.

Women
and chil-
dren

thrown into
the river.

Two chil-
dren found
afterward!
frozen in
the snow.

OUTRAGE AT VAGANATZ,

LETTER
IX.

Outrage at
Vaganatz,

As I have already said, the recent outrages in this
district have extended to two other hamlets besides
Ocievo. To gain further evidence about these I went
to Unnatz, in the insurgent district, and to Osredke, on
the Croatian border, where I had heard that some of the
victims had taken refuge. Vaganatz, the scene of one of
these outrages, was simply an isolated farm inhabited by
Stephen Rodid, his two daughters (Djorgia and Sava),
and his boy Obrad. The Turks, numbering about a
hundred, arrived here a fortnight ago, broke into the
house, shot the father, tortured one of the little girls to try
to extract information as to the whereabouts of insurgents,
who have no camp in this district, and threw the other girl,
who was sick, out of doors. They burnt the house after first
pillaging it, and made off to Petrovatz with twelve oxen
and four horses, part of which belonged to Rodid himself
and part to a certain Nikola Morada. The boy, aged
eleven, escaped, and, after wandering about four days
without food or shelter, found his way to Unnatz, which
the girl Djorgia and her sick sister also succeeded in
reaching. At Unnatz I saw three men, Jovan Skakid,
Damian Turitza, and Obrad Bai<5, who had visited the
burnt homestead and found the headless body of Rodid
His head had been carried by the Turks to Petrovatz.
They had also seen the boy Obrad and heard his
account of the tragedy, which agreed with that which I
took down from the lips of Djorgia Rodid, whom I
succeeded in finding at Osredke. Several witnesses
there testified that when she arrived she was bruised all
over owing to the cruel treatment she had received at the
hands of her father's murderers ; but when I saw her,
which was a fortnight later, she bore no marks of violence,
at least on her hands and face.

E VIDENCE OF A RA YAH GIRL.

The little maiden gave her evidence very well. She
said she was about thirteen, but seemed rather uncertain
as to her age. She saw her father shot and his head
chopped off ; he was at home ill when the Turks came.
She thought there were over a hundred. She had seen
Redifs and Bashi-bazouks before, and both were there.
Pasitza Kulenovid was the leader; she had seen him
before in Unnatz. The Turks asked her whether she
knew where the insurgents were. She said she lived at
home with father and sister and Obrad, and she knew
nothing. They then beat her with their guns, but she
could, say no more. She had no mother, and now she
had no father.

As to the atrocities perpetrated on the peaceful in-
habitants of Klekovatza, in this same district, I have
obtained the most direct and convincing testimony. My
witnesses are Pope Lazar Ketzman and his wife, Sava
Ketzman, whoise arms still bore marks of injuries received
in defence of her chastity, both of whom I examined at
Osredke ; Spiro Ketzman, examined at Unnatz ; and
Jovo Voivodid, at Serb.

The inhabitants of Klekovatza had all originally fled
from the village of Drinid, near Petrovatz, burnt by the
Turks last year. Some had fled to Austrian soil, and
returned this spring to the number of about thirty. On
April 20 about two hundred and fifty Turks fell on the
village, which, like Odievo, was perfectly peaceful, and,
as I know from evidence collected before these deplorable
events took place, quite beyond the limits of the insurgent
territory. The leaders of the Turkish horde were Murad
Beg Kulenovid and M^chmed Berizovid, and there were
present, besides Bashi-bazouks, Redifs under a ' Kolash.'
The usual scenes took place. The houses, five in all,

LETTER
IX.

Examina-
tion of a
little ray ah
girl

MASSACRE AT KLEKOVATZA,

LETTER
IX.

Massacre
at Kleko-

vatza.

The above to
be regarded
as a sample
of what has
been occur-
ring in
Bosnia,

were first pillaged and then burnt Three brothers of the
pope — namely, Vu^im, P^ro, and Ilija Ketzman — and
Toreta and Vu^im, kinsmen of the same family, five in
all, were murdered. Cattle was lifted to the number
of over 200 goats and sheep, 50 oxen, and 10 horses.
The women and girls suflfered the usual fate. The
pope, who was less reticent on this matter than the
Oifievo witnesses, mentioned to me five of the Ketzman
family — Militza, Maria, Smiliana, Rushitza, and Mara —
who had been thus outraged. The heads of the murdered
men were cut off and taken to Petrovatz.

These events, which I have done all in my power to
mvestigate and make public, are but a sample of what on
a greater or lesser scale has been occurring, and is still
occurring, throughout the length and breadth of Bosnia
and Herzegovina. In a single small district of the province,
in the month succeeding the promulgation of the new
Constitution, three peaceful villages have been burnt and
plundered, over 800 head of cattle have been taken from
their Christian owners, eleven men and three children mur-
dered — ^and indirectly how many more ? — and at least a
score of girls and women outraged. Multitudes are now
cowering suppliants for charity on Christian soil, the
indignation of neighbouring Slav populations has been
fed, the Bosnian insurrection has been swelled by des-
perate men, and, what is more, the Turkish Government
is absolutely powerless, even if it had the will, either to
punish the ringleaders, or to give redress to the victims,
or to guarantee them security for the future.

In face of facts like these it is monstrous to babble of
protocols and diplomatic amenities, or even of consular
commissions. Every mild interference at Stamboul or
Serajevo only irritates the dominant caste in the provinces

IMPOTENCE OF STAMBOUL GOVERNMENT.

to new deeds of horror. It is iniquitous to ask the refugees
to return, or to express bland hopes that the brothers and
husbands of the murdered, the robbed, and the ravished
will lay down their arms. There is only one remedy for
the state of things in Bosnia — an immediate Austrian
occupation of the province, to be followed either by final
incorporation with the monarchy or the prolonged ad-
ministration of the province by an European commission.

LETTER
IX.

Necessity of

Austrian

occupation.

NOTE.

THE BRITISH FOREIGN OFFICE AND THE OUTRAGES IN

BOSNIA.

FOREIGN

OFFICE

AND

BOSNIAN

OUTRAGES.

Questions
asked in
Parlia-
ment.

On March 9th, Sir George Campbell asked in the House, in
reference to my previous correspondence in the Manchester Guard-
ian, whether it was true 'that owing to the continued gross
oppressions of the Mahometans, a large proportion of the Christian
inhabitants of Bosnia were passing the winter in caves and holes
and other' wretched asylums, on the Austrian frontier, in the most
miserable manner ; * and also, * whether Bosnia was not still the
scene of obstinate insurrection.'

Mr. Bourke, who does not appear at that time to have mastered
the geography of the question, replied vaguely, not about Bosnia,
but about NikSid and the Montenegrin border of Herzegovina.
* He had reason to hope, however, that when peace had been
concluded between the Porte and Montenegro, tranquillity might be
restored in the adjoining provinces.' Soliiudinem faciunt^ pacem
appellant t

On March 23rd, I sent the first information of the outrages at
OSievo and the neighbouring villages, in a telegram to the Man-
chester Guardian ; and in a more detailed form on March 26th.
On April loth, information as to these outrages was asked for in
the House of Commons by Mr. £. Jenkins.

Mr. Bourke repUed that after Sir G. CampbelFs question in the
House on the 9th, a telegram had been sent (March 13th) to
Mr. Consul Holmes, and that three despatches, from which he
proceeded to read extracts, had been received in reply, dated
March 14th, 16th, and 29th. From the last of these, dated March

THE FOREIGN OFFICE AND BOSNIAN OUTRAGES. 85

29th, nearly three weeks after the occurrence of the outrages under
notice, it appears that no breath of them had reached consular ears
at Serajevo ; and Mr. Holmes is still assuring the Government ' that
there is no truth whatever in the assertion that there is an increase
of murders and outrages in the province.* Mr. Holmes is quite
right : nobody who knows anything about Bosnia ever supposed that
the state of things marked by the outrages at OSievo and elsewhere
was abnormal in its character. For three years it has become chronic.

The amenities of consular diction permit Mr. Holmes in
these despatches to speak of the insurgents impartially as * filibus-
ters ' and * brigands ; ' and he does me the honour to quote a few
extracts from my letters to the Manchester Guardian^ amongst
others, my experience as an eye-witness to the misery of the
refugees, 'just to show,' as he puts it, ' how incorrectly what passes
in Bosnia is represented by Slavophiles, who, from their vicinity
and facility of correspondence, ought to be better informed, if they
desired to be so.' It is to be observed that our Consul, residing
in a province where, with the exception of a small bureaucratic
clique of Osmanlis (by whom he was surrounded), the whole
population Mahometan as well as Christian is Slav, uses *• Slavo-
phile ' as an epithet of contempt.

As regards the insurgents, Mr. Holmes writes to Lord Derby :
' I am at present confined to my room by an indisposition ; but I in-
tend to take an early opportunity of urging the Vali to take steps at
once, if possible, to sweep these bands of brigands out of Bosnia.'
Of this ' sweeping out ' anon. Mr. Holmes further states that he is
aware that he is *• represented as a passionate Turcophile ; ' and pro-
ceeds to enumerate the great disadvantages under which he labours
* in common with the few who have any knowledge of affairs in
Bosnia, in having to contend against the great majority of uninformed
and prejudiced speakers and writers on the state of affairs in these
countries. '

The better, perhaps, to illustrate his *• knowledge of affairs in
Bosnia,' and in order to satisfy the natural desire of his ' superiors,'
as he calls the Foreign Office, for information from his own
unexceptionable sources, Mr. Consul Holmes takes up a ten-days-
old copy of the Times ; and having cut out an extract from a letter
of the Austrian Correspondent (whose Turco-Magyar sympathies

♦g3

FOREIGN

OFFICE

AND

BOSNIAN

OUTRAGES,

Mr. Consul

Holmes'

Reports,

Mr.
Holmes
sources of
informa-
tion.

THE FOREIGN OFFICE AND BOSNIAN OUTRAGES,

FOREIGN
OFFICE

AND

BOSNIAN

OUTRAGES.

Mr. Consul
Holmes'Re-
ports.

are well known), despatches it to the Foreign Ofiice with all the
pomp and dignity of a State paper ! Thus we have the extraordinary
spectacle of an English Consul in Bosnia, reduced to obtain his
information as to his own province from Vienna, through London !
The information obtained by this lengthy process is very much what
might have been expected. It is the * inspired ' Austrian * view *
of the insurrection as it ought to be represented ; but that Mr.
Holmes should have endorsed such a tissue of misrepresentation,
without having in any way tested its accuracy, is as astonishing as
the ignorance of the current history of his province which this
document displays. In it Despotoviifs command is placed in a
district to which he never, I believe, paid so much as a flying visit !
The refugees are described as chiefly driven forth by their insurgent
brothers — the fact being that the little mountain-tract which I
have called * Free Bosnia * is one of the few districts in the province
where rayah villages still exist. The insurgents, as I satisfied
myself by visiting seven of their camps, are native Bosniacs almost
to a man ; but Mr. Holmes lends the weight of his consular authority
to such a perversion of fact as the following : — ' The so-called
insurrectionary movement is but a brigandage on a large scale,
being kept up, not by the people themselves, but for the most part
by adventurers from other Slav districts.*

I will remark en passant that at the present moment the country
in the hands of the insurgents is the only part of Bosnia where a
stranger may wander without arms or passport secure from the
insults of Katies or the assaults of robbers or assassins, and secure,
wherever he arrives, of meeting with a kind and hospitable reception,
and of finding food and shelter, for which the men whom it has
pleased our Consul to stigmatize as * brigands ' will accept no pecu'
niary compensation. Mr. Holmes accounts for the fact that (with
the best of wills) he was unable to report Christian atrocities which
should act as a set-off to those perpetrated by Bashi-bazouks by the
sublime consideration * that the Turks have thought it more dignified
to revenge than to complain. * Silent assassination ! The dignity of
revenge ! Strange language for the English representative in Bosnia
to be using on the eve of new massacres ! As to the maxim itself,
Mr. Holmes does not seem to be aware that it is after all not new,
and has indeed been shared by a large proportion of the cut-throats

THE FOREIGtr OFFICE AND BOSNIAN OUTRAGES.

and assassins of all ages. But society with singular unanimity has
restrained this noble spirit of individual vindictiveness, by various
modes, but most frequently with a hempen halter ; and when it has
ceased to do so it has generally ceased to be society.

As to the outrages about which the question had been put by
the member for Dundee, it was not to be expected that anything
should be known about them at the British Consulate three weeks
after their occurrence. On Mr. W. £. Forster asking whether the
Government had taken means to obtain information as to the
particular outrages in question, Mr« Bourke replied that no such
steps had been taken, and that, really, the great expense of tele-
grams had to be considered.

On April 25th, Mr. £. Jenkins inquired whether attention had
been called to the fact, that the account of murders and outrages
upon refugees who had returned to their homes at 06ievo, in Bosnia,
had been fully confirmed by inquiry on the spot as reported in the
Manchester Guardian of Saturday. Mr. Bourke' acknowledged the
receipt of a short report or risumi of the results of my investigations
which I had forwarded to the Foreign Office through our Consul at
Trieste ; and further, that this information had been telegraphed
to Mr. Consul Holmes, who had immediately telegraphed to
Vice-Consul Freeman, then at Mostar, to make an inquiry into
the outrages which I had reported.

On May 1 2th, in the adjourned debate, Mr. Shaw Lefevre again
called attention to the despatch of Mr. Consul Holmes, describing
the state of Bosnia in glowing terms.

On June 21st, Mr. Vice-Consul Freeman's report on the
outrages at 06ievo was received by the Foreign OfBce ; and on
July loth Mr. Shaw Lefevre brought the despatch and the general
conduct of our Consul in Bosnia before Parliament. Mr. Shaw
Lefevre pointed out the substantial agreement between Mr. Vice-
Consul Freeman's report and my co^espondence ; and the extraordi-
nary contradictions between the report of Mr. Freeman and his chief.
Mr. Bourke stoutly denied that there was any substantial discrepancy
between Mr. Holmes and Mr. Freeman; but Mr. Dillwyn and
Mr. James supported Mr. Shaw Lefevre's allegations, Mr. James
pointing out that at the very time that Mr. Consul Holmes was
denying < the astounding statements ' about impalement and other

FOREIGN
OFFICE

AND

BOSNIAN

OUTRAGES.

Further
questions
in the
House,

Mr. Vice-
Consul
Freeman's
Report.

THE FOREIGN OFFICE AND BOSNIAN OUTRAGES.

FOREIGN

OFFICE

AND

BOSNIAN

OUTRAGES.

Mr, Vict-

Consul

Freeman

contradicts

Mr,

Holmei

reports.

atrocities perpetrated in Bosnia, and asserting that *neit]ier the
Turkish authorities nor the Consuls nor the people have ever
heard of anything resembling the cruelties mentioned,' (see Mr.
Holmes* despatch, October 5th, 1876), he had a report dated the
17th of the previous March in his possession, from his awn Vtce-
Consul, Mr, Freeman, to the effect that a man had been impaled
at Novi, in full view of an Austrian village ; and that four other
persons had Been killed and their heads exposed on stakes ; and that
the master of the Orthodox school at Priedor had been butchered, and
his head paraded about the streets with drums and bands of music.

Mr. Vice-Consul Freeman in his report on the O^ievo outrages
rectifies, in fact, a whole string of mis-statements to which his
superior, Mr. Consul Holmes, had committed himself. He denies
that the insurgents are mere brigands, and asserts on the contrary
that ' Colonel Despotovi<f maintains the strictest discipline among
his men.' He comes to the conclusion that so far as 0£ievo is
concerned, the Christian villages were burnt with circumstances
of atrocity ; he bears out all that I had stated as to the misery of
the refugees, and adds his testimony to the fact that the Turks
have converted a large part of Bosnia into a desert.

As to the outrages at O^ievo, Mr. Vice-Consul Freeman ex-
amined thirteen men and twenty girls and women, among the
refugees from the burnt villages, and the evidence he obtained frx>m
these harmonizes in most particulars with that which I had previously
taken down, viz., that the refugees had been invited to return by
the Mahometan landlords and had been promised security by them ;
that the inhabitants were peaceful villagers and not insuigents ; that
the Turks, besides burning and plundering the villages of O&evo
and murdering some of the inhabitants (according to Mr. Freeman's
rayah evidence five, according to mine only one), had outraged girls
and women. Mr. Freeman complains that the evidence was vague
and unsatisfactory; and I must add that I found the same diffi-
culty in getting these people to descend to particulars, but this is
much what would be found among any people in the same stage
of barbarism as the Bosniacs. I will also observe that some
individual cases of horror, the details of which were related to me,
were not borne out by Mr. Freeman's evidence ; and I have there-
fore willingly omitted them in my account.

THE FOREIGN OFFICE AND BOSNIAN OUTRAGES.

«9

Mr. Freeman laboured under the disadvantage of making his
inquiries three weeks later than mine, and when the memory of
events was not so fresh. To this I suppose is due the fact that he
does not distinguish between the two days on which the outrages were
committed, and that he confuses the order of events. Mr. Freeman
did not visit the actual ruins of the villages themselves, and there-
fore had no opportunity of testing the accuracy of the witnesses by
the mute evidence of the things destroyed ; nor did he examine the
refugees from the burnt villages whom I hunted up in obscure
mountain retreats in the country which I have called ' Free Bosnia.'
Had he done so he would have been less ready to accept some of
the counter-statements made to him by the Turks at Kulen Vakup,
such SIS the all^;ation that the whole affair was brought on by a
battle between them and the insurgents at Ocievo ; that the Kaimakam
only burnt four guard-houses of the insurgents that he found there ;
and the further insinuation that the insurgents or the refugees must
have burnt their own village, and, I suppose, plundered and
outraged themselves ! I know from evidence derived before these
unfortunate events took place that OSievo was quite beyond the limits
of the insurgent territory on this side ; and that the Unnatz was at
this point recognised as a well-defined boundary, the overstepping of
which was most sternly prohibited by the insurgent commander — true
to the defensive strategy resolved on from the beginning. Indeed, if
Ocievo were an insurgent stronghold, how does Mr. Freeman explain
the &ct that the Mahometan B^[s invited the refugees to return there ?
As to the statement of the Kaimakam about the 'guard-houses,'
I can only say that the charred remains of the villages that I saw
were those of the very small peasant huts of this part of Bosnia.
One act of humanity on the part of this Kaimakam, according to
all my accounts the chief ringleader in the outrages, ought to be
mentioned, as Mr. Freeman heard it from a rajrah woman. Dosta
Karanovid said that this officer prevented the burning of her house
because she had sick children there.

As to the outrages and massacres at Vaganatz and Klekovatza,
which were among the worst mentioned in my report, Mr. Freeman
Is altogether silent, not having visited those districts.

I must, while adding my homage to the painstaking character of
Mr. Freeman's report, protest very strongly against some sweeping

FOREIGN

OFFICE

AND

BOSNIAN

OUTRAGES.

Mr, Vice-
Consul
Freeman
too ready to
accept
Turkish
counter
statements.

THE FOREIGN OFFICE AND BOSNIAN OUTRAGES,

FOREIGN
OFFICE

AND

BOSNIAN

OUTRAGES.

Vice-
Consul
FreemarCs
attack on
the morals
of Bosnian
rayah%
rebutted.

statements Which he makes as to the morality of the Bosnian
rayahs. After observing that ' the excesses and outrages/ to quote
our Vice-Consul's words, * committed by the Bashi-bazouks last
year, all over the country, were beyond description,' and mention-
ing that even respectable Turks had admitted to him that every
possible horror had been perpetrated during the last two years, —
'Mr. Freeman further regrets to state that the Mahometan
landlords of this part of Bosnia, ' according to common report, have
but little respect for the wives and daughters of their dependents ; *
but adds as a comment of his own, * In a country, however, like
Bosnia, where morality is at such a very low point, this last grievance,
I should say, is not their greatest.' Now this statement as to the
morality of the Bosnian rayah is cruelly untrue. Mr. Freeman has
been doubtless misled by generalizing from the state of society in
Serajevo, which is very different from that of the country districts.
By travellers so well acquainted with Bosnia as Ami Boue,
Thoemmel, and Roskievi<5, the peculiarly rigorous morality of the
Bosnian rayahs, those at least belonging to the Orthodox Church,
has been made the object of special eulogy. I will add that all
that I know myself of Bosnian country life, and all that I know
from residents in the country, whose experience of Bosnia is far
greater than my own, bears out the evidence as to the purity of
their family life. Not a grievance indeed ! Has Mr. Freeman
never seen those sad, dull faces ? I commend to his notice the
following description, written by Miss Irby, and referring to the
Turkish inroad into the insurgent territory, that took place in this
same neighbourhood shortly after our Vice-Consul had concluded
his report on the earlier outrages perpetrated at Ocievo and else-
where :

* I have seen several peasants from the plundered villages of
TiSovo and Preodatz, and have conversed at leisure with three of
the four women who were carried off by the Turks, and who
escaped on Saturday night into Austrian territory. On Thursday
afternoon the cry reached the villagers of TiSovo, ** The Turkish
soldiers are coming ! " Before the Turks reached the village all the
inhabitants had run away except an old man of eighty and a few
women and children. , . . Then these four women were
questioned as to where were the men of the village and where was

THE FOREIGN OFFICE AND BOSNIAN OUTRAGES. 91

the insurgents* camp, and were threatened with the soldiers* knives
to make them answer. They were carried off by the troops, driven
with cruel force on the march by day and spending the nights in
the tents with the soldiers. In speaking of those two nights in the
Turkish tents they hid their faces and said, ' Better it would have
been that we had perished ! If there had been fire we would have
sprung into it, or if there had been water we would have drowned
ourselves ; but there was neither 'fire nor water. ' Their fear now
is that God is angry with them, and will send them to hell for
what they have suffered. The poor girl Stoja, whose figure bespoke
despair, hid her tear-swollen face on the shoulder of the older
woman. Their terror and confusion on arriving here are not to be
described, but they were reassured by kindness. They are simple,
modest, peasant women of the better class. But for their costume
they might have been English cottagers. . . . On Saturday even-
ing, in the dark, the women escaped to the woods. The fourth, a
girl of fifteen, had suffered so terribly that she sank down in the flight.
On reaching the frontier the other three found the mother of this
girl, who had escaped previously. When she was told of the bitter
sorrow of her daughter, the poor woman rushed back into the
woods to seek her. No tidings have been heard of them since. *

The troops into whose power these unfortunate women fell were
despatched into this district at the special instance of Mr. Consul
Holmes — now Sir W. R. Holmes.

FOREIGN
OFFICE

AND

BOSNIAN

OUTRAGES.

Some ejficis
of Mr.
Holmes*
'urging the
VaU:

LETTER X.

INTERVIEWS WITH THE BOSNIAN BEGS.

LETTER
X.

Resolve to obtain views on present situation from leading Begs of Bosnia.
Their head-quarters, Kulen Vakup, a nest of fanaticism. Necessary
precautions. I receive a letter addressed to the Czar of England, to
the King of England, and the Ambassador of two Empires. On the
way: dreams and omens. Encounter an arm^d fanatic. Received
by Turks with ovation. Grant an audience to Bosnian Begs. Their
irreconcilable attitude towards their ray ah serfs. Necessity of ^ force
majeure ' in Bosnia. Whence is it to come f Not from the Osmanli.
The Osmanlis in Bosnia allied, on confession of Mahonutans them-
selves, with most fanatic among the Begs. Austrian occupation
the only application of 'force majeure ' within the sphere of practical
politics. Probable effects of Christian Government on Bosnia. Pro-
bability that Isldm will yield there to Western Civilization and its
allied Religion. Mahometan oracle at Kulen Vakup. Pythonesses
and holy stones. Great seclusion of women there.

St. Roch, Croatia: April ij.

HAD resolved to visit the Bosnian Begs and
learn their opinions on the present situation
from their own lips. Their head-quarters, and
at the present moment the fountain-head of all
the fanatical elements in Bosnia, is Kulen Vakup, of
the promulgation of the Turkish Constitution at which
place I have already given my readers some account

To Kulen Vakup, therefore, I resolved to go. The
I Croats of the frontier at Lapatz and elsewhere assvured

NECESSARY PRECAUTIONS.

me that it would be considerably easier to pay a visit to
another world — to go to Bihad or to Livno was just pos-
sible ; but as to Kulen Vakup, no Giaour from beyond
the borders had ventured there for the last year and a
half. About three thousand of the worst fanatics in
Bosnia, Begs who had lost their rayah serfs, Mahometan
villagers dispossessed by the insurgents, townspeople
whose bigotry had at all times been conspicuous even in
Bosnia, were crowded within its walls, and if I went my
head would be added to a considerable collection already
accumulated by the local Begs.

Now, as I had already learned from my Mahometan
friend at Czemi Potuk that some of his relations across
the border were only just waiting for the first Englishman
they saw, and as I was not ignorant that the head of at
least one Giaour had been kicked about the streets of
Vakup a few days previously, I thought it advisable to
take evoy reasonable precaution before trusting myself
in this Bosnian hornets' nest. Accordingly I had a letter
drawn up in the choicest Bosniac, and addressed to the
* Right Hand of the Sultan in Kulen Vakup,' stating
that an Englishman with an English passport, duly vis^d
at the Ottoman Embassy in London, was desirous to pay
a visit to his city, but, having heard that there might be
some difficulties in the way of such a visit, wished to know
if the Mudir was willing to guarantee his personal security.

This missive I despatched to Vakup by a Turkish
employiy a Christian, who, with his brother, also in the
Turkish service, are the only two outsiders who dare trust
their heads in the town ; while among the Mahometan
burghers only two merchants who are less bigoted than
the rest continue their intercourse with Christendom.
The letter despatched, as it was my intention first to

LETTER
X.

Warnings
against
visiting
Vakup.

I address a
letter to the
Right
Hand of
the Sultan
in Kulen
Vakup.

INTERPRETATION OF MY VISIT BY THE TURKS.

LETTER
X.

My coming
impatiently
awaits by
Mahometan
Bosniacs»

complete my investigation into the outrages at O^ievo
and elsewhere, I left the Croatian frontier village of
Lapatz to return a week later and learn the result of my
negotiation.

On my return to Lapatz I found the whole place agog
with the news that the Turks were awaiting my arrival
with feverish impatience, that messages had been sent to
the Austrian authorities to know when they might hope
to see me, that the Kaimakams, or chief officials, from
Bihad and Petrovatz and elsewhere had flocked to Vakup
to meet me, and, in short, that I was looked upon there
as a kind of Saviour of Society !

It appears that the Bosnian Mahometans of Kulen
Vakup and elsewhere, cut off for nearly two years by the
insurrection and their fear of the Croatian * grenzers ' from
the outside world, impoverished by the loss of their rayahs
and the destruction of their property, hailed the appear-
ance of the first stranger among them — and that stranger
an Englishman — as a sign of approaching deliverance,
and, interpreting my letter by the light of their extravagant
wishes, regarded my mission, and persisted to the end in
so regarding it, not (as indeed it was) as a purely personal
undertaking of my own, but as official, and of deep poli-
tical import to themselves.

Accordingly I found a letter, written in antique*
Cyrillian characters — your Bosnian Mahometans know-
nothing of Osmanli or Arabic — ^awaiting me * from the

* The characters in which this
letter was written are of a kind
peculiar to the Bosniac Maho-
metans, and differ so considerably
from the ordinary Cyrillian, in use
among the Orthodox Slavs, as to
be quite illegible to them. It is

only merchants of the border towns
who, from their commercial con-
nection with Bosnia, are aUe to
read this writing; Slavonic pro-
fessors even have confessed to me
their inability to read it.

A LETTER TO THE EMPEROR OF ENGLAND.

Mudir of the Ottoman Czar in Kulen Vakup.' On the
cover of this precious document was written —

' OFFICIAL.

* This letter is to be given

'to

' THE CZAR OF ENGLAND AND EVENSA ARTURA:

And here is a translation of what I found inside.

* THE MUDIR OF THE OTTOMAN CZAR A T VAKUP,

'to
' THE KING OF ENGLAND AND EVENSA ARTURA.

* I have received thy letter, conveyed to me by George
Pavi<fi<5, and I have understood what thou writest to me,
that thou wouldst willingly come here to Vakup as Imperial
Ambassador (kao Carski Poslanik)^h\xt that, notwithstanding,
thou hast heard that there be evil-disposed persons in this
city; therefore do I say that those who speak thus speak
falsely ; for our wishes are friendly, and to him that cometh
in the name of two Empires let there be no fear.'

So true it is that some have greatness thrust upon
them 1 Who the two Emperors were whose commission I
was supposed to hold I have never quite been able to
determine, but I think I can set my readers' minds at
rest as to the * Emperor of England' The Czar of
England in the eyes of all true Vakupers is, as I have
already intimated in a former letter, no one else than His
Most Gracious Majesty the Sultan — though with infinite
politeness they admit the co-existence of our * KingJ

Under the circumstances there was nothing for it but
to put a bold face on the matter and accept my new
character, whatever it might be. One of the two Chris-
tian employks of the Turks, Mili Pavidid, who is in great
£&vour wiUi the Vakupers, but had not • been able to set

LETTER
X.

letter to the
Emperor of
England^
the King of
England^
and the
Ambassa-
dor of two
Empires.

The Czar of
England^

AS THE AMBASSADOR OF TWO EMPIRES,

LETTER
X.

Necessary
precautions.

Dreams
and omens.

foot in their town for the last year for fear of compromis-
ing himself on the Croatian &ide of the border and sharing
the fate of a Turkish spy from the insurgents and their
friends, readily volunteered to accompany me, and was
invaluable as a guide and interpreter. His brother
Geoige, who has never broken off his communication
with the Turks, and who, in fact, was in Vakup when the
Bashi-bazouks brought in the head of the village elder
from O^ievo, I sent on to inform the Turks of my
coming.

Next I took the precaution to orientalize my per-
sonal appearance as much as possible by enfolding my
too Western hat in a puggaree, and arraying myself in a
gorgeous mantle of marvellous make and scarlet lining,
with the antecedents of which I need not trouble my
readers, but which, I flatter myself, had something Beg-
like in its colour and dimensions, and which certainly in-
spired no small amount of admiration in the bosoms of
true believers. Before all things it was necessary not to
appear in the garb of an ordinary Giaour 1

So we started on foot, expecting to meet an escort at
the frontier ; but none arrived, which was a little ominous
under the circumstances. *Do you know,' said my
guide, * that my wife tried hard to keep me from going
with you to-day, for she had dreamed that a serpent
stung me on the way and that I fell down dead?' We
passed through a long stretch of waste lands which the
Vakupers, who are in mortal fear of the insurgents, dare
not work. An hour or so later we came to some fields
still cultivated, and passed by some Mahometan peasants
armed to the teeth, but they knew Pavi6<5, and allowed
us to pass. In a narrow lane nearing the descent towards
Vakup we had a more formidable encounter. A man in

PROSPECT OF KULEN VAKUP,

dingy Redif clothing, but with the half turban of a Bashi-
bazouk on his head, and with one of the most diabolical
expressions of countenance that I have ever set eyes on,
walked straight in our path with a gun and fixed bayonet.
Though I will confess to a feeling of alarm at his appear-
ance, I walked on, and was preparing to allow him the
usual elbow-room accorded by one passer-by to another,
and with as much seeming nonchalance as if this were my
usual morning's stroll, when my guide whispered impera-
tively, * Stand to the hedge ! ' I took his advice, but not
a moment too soon. The fanatic was already raising his
bayonet to stab me. ' Dog of a Giaour ! ' he muttered,
and without looking to right or left marched on.

From the brow of a hill the first view of Kulen Vakup
broke upon me, and its position is one of the most beau-
tiful that can be imagined. The little town is huddled
on an island of the Unna, with its peaked tops of dark
woodwork and white soaring minarets set off by emerald
streams, meadow land, and tree-covered heights, the
fruit trees now in the first blossom of spring. On either
side and all around are considerable mountains. On a
small rock at one end of the town is the old Castle of
Avala, now mostly dismantled. Towering over a pre-
cipice on the other side are the still magnificent ruins of
Ostrovizza, an old castle of Bosnian kings, and later of
the Venetians. From a narrow gorge a little further
up the valley the Unna leaps among the green meadow
lands below in a beautiful cascade.

We now perceived that our arrival had been signalled
to the Turks from Ostrovizza. The whole town was
astir to welcome me, and a Turkish Kolash riding up the
hill insisted on my mounting his beautiful Arab.

'Effendi,' he said, * when first my eyes rested upon

LETTER
X.

Encounter
armed fa-
natic.

Prospect' of

Kulen

Vakup.

TRIUMPHANT ENTRY INTO KULEN VAKUP.

LETTER
X.

Received
with ova-
tion by offi
cialsy sol-
diers, and
Mahometan
population.

Grant au-
diences to
the Begs,

your red mantle I doubted not who approached, for as
you stand before me now, even so had you appeared to
me in the visions of the night '

Both he and the other officials were warm in their
protestations that, had they known of my coming, they
would have sent a guard of honour to escort me frona
the frontier; and it turned out that my letter, which
should have arrived the day before, had not been re-
ceived, and in fact the messenger, who had delayed on
the other side of the border, only came up after our
arrival.

At the bridge over the Unna and the narrow portal
of the town the Redifs and townspeople were drawn up
on either side of the way to receive me, the soldiers pre-
senting arms as I passed. Then a band of drummers
and trumpeters formed in front and blew and beat the
Bosnian devil's-tattoo before me, winding up with a
magnificent flourish as I dismounted from my coal-black
steed at the official residence. But I need not trouble
you with all the official hobnobbings, and salutes, and
blowing of trumpets with which my humble presence in
Kulen Vakup was honoured, down to the final escort of
Redifs that accompanied me to the frontier on my return
journey. Suffice it to say that had I been the Padishah
himself they could hardly have done more.

What is more to the purpose, the exalted ideas which
the Turks possessed of my powers and dignities enabled
me to prosecute my inquiry with complete success. I
had interviews with, or rather granted audiences to, the
Begs and the Mahometan merchants to my full content-
ment, and heard from their own lips their grievances,
their hopes and fears, and their views on things in
general The main ingredients of society here are, first.

RECEIVE BEGS IN AUDIENCE,

\99

a very small Osmanll element, due to the presence of
about 150 Redifs and their officer in the town, an
element otherwise solely represented by the Mudir, who
is here a mere puppet in the hands of the Begs and
native Mahometan Bosniacs, who, as my readers are
aware, are of Slavonic race, and not in any sense Turks.
Of the natives, who in normal circumstances form the
entire population, three classes may at present be distin-
guished. First there are the Begs, or great landholders,
the old feudal nobility of Bosnia under a Mahometan
guise, these nearly all belonging to the great family of
Kulenovid, the most powerful and numerous of the noble
families of Bosnia ; next are the merchants and lesser
tradesmen \ and inferior to them a crowd of Mahometan
villagers from the suburbs and surrounding country who
have taken refuge in Kulen Vakup from the insurgents,
who in many cases have burnt their villages, but, as far
as I could learn, without any other circiimstances of
atrocity. Besides these there are a few rayahs who,
having better masters than the average, have not fled.

I received several of the Begs, mostly of the Kule-
novid family, in audience in the official residence. I said
that the English people had heard that there was much
misery !n Bosnia, and that they wished to know whether
an end could not be put to it. * Yes,' they said, * they had
suffered much.' One had lost so many houses and
villages, and another so many ; and, worse than all, their
rayah serfs had fled, and there was no one now to till
their fields for them, while others had turned Haiduks
(brigands) and robbed and threatened them every day.
Was that not misery enough? I held up a spray of
blackthorn in full bloom (one must harangue these old-
world folk in Eastern fashion), and said, * You see these

LETTER
X.

Thepopuhi'
Hon of
Kulen
Vakup,

Cenversa-
tion with
the Begs.

H a

Cotwersa-
tion with
the Begs.

Their irre-
concilable
views as to
the rayahs.

CONVERSATION WITH THE BEGS.

blossoms. I picked them on my way here amongst your
untilled fields. Spring has come. Why should not the
land bloom again as this spray ? You have had your
winter, and cold enough it has been. Surely you must
be ready for the spring of peace ? You are impoverished
and ruined by the flight of the rayah. Why not hold out
your hand to him and welcome his return?'

* They can return to-morrow,' they replied with one
Accord, ^and we shall be only too glad to see them
back — but on the old footing.'

* But do not think,' said old Mahomed Beg Kulenovi<5,
who was one of the chief speakers, and by no means one
of the worst of the Begs — ' do not think that their lot
will be the same. Yes, we will receive them back ; we
will not harm them or their wives or their children ; but
their lot will never be so favourable as before.' And this
he said with determined emphasis.

'Will you take more from them,' I asked, *if they
return?'

*No,' was the short reply j 'we will not take more,
but their lot will be worse.'

*Proi>erty is property,' remarked another, senten-
tiously.

I observed that we had very much the same idea in
England, that with us, too, there were great landowners —
Begs — and their rayahs. But our rayahs did not fly or
turn Haiduk; they paid more to their Begs without
grumbling. And why ? Because in England everything
was regular. The Begs gave the rayahs a writing that
said what they must pay and when they must pay it. The
Beg had his right and the rayah had his. It was arbi-
trariness aiid irregularity in demands which roused the
discontent of the rajrah more even than the amount paid.

CONVERSATION WITH THE BEGS.

lOI

LETTER
X.

Conversa'
Hon with

This produced a certain impression. I then asked them,
if they really were willing to see the rayahs back, how it
was that we in England had heard that returning rayahs
had been maltreated. Some rayahs had returned, so we I the' Begs
had heard, near Kulen Vakup itself, and had rebuilt their
villages. And what had happened ? Their villages had
been rebumt, and the Christian villagers had fled once
more beyond the border.

This allusion to the recent outrages at O^ievo and
elsewhere took the Begs visibly aback. They were silent
for a while, and then one said that the whole account was
false. But Halil Beg, one of the worst characters present,
simply scowled.

*We know,' I said, 'that Bosnia is the lion that
guards the gate of Stamboul (a favourite boast among
the native Bosniacs). But the lion is surrounded by
bears and mountain wolves.^ and what can, he do against
such odds ? You think that England can help you* But
Kngland is, as a whale, mighty in the waters ; the lion is
strong upon the land ; but if the lion is overmatched how
can the whale aid him ? Let the lion therefore make peace
with the mountain wolves, lest the bears devour him V

The Bosnian Begs understood the parable, but re-
plied — * Yes, Bosnia is the lion that guards the gate of
Stamboul; you have spoken truly. But the lion shall
eat up the mountain wolves. And as to Austria, our
Czar will never grant permission to theirs to send troops.
into Bosnia. No, never 1 ' The Begs still hold to their
persuasion that all the European monarchs are obedient
vassals of the Sultan !

As to putting the Bosnian Christians in any sense

1 ' Mountain wolves,' the name by which the Bosnian Mahometans
speak of the insurgents.

I02

OPINION OF BOSNIAN MAHOMETANS,

LETTER
X.

Equality of
rayahs he-
fore the law.

How viewed
by Bosnian
Mahome-
tans.

on a level with true believers, the Begs would not hear
of it.

On this head I cannot do better than give you the
words of Ahmed Abdughid, the leading merchant of the
place, and by no means so bigoted as many — * a Turk,' as
he was descnbed to me by an inhabitant of Lapatz,
* among fifty thousand.'

' Rather than submit to that/ he replied, ' if that is
what is meant by the new Constitution, we will shut our-
selves up in our houses, with our wives and our children,
and with our own hands we will slay our wives and our
children, and last of all we will cut our own throats with
our own handjars.' *

There is something grand and terrible in this Essene-
like resolution of fanaticism which must at least command
respect. For these are not idle words. I do not doubt
that in certain eventualities some at least of the leading
Mahometans of Bosnia are prepared to cany them into
effect Yet Allah is great, and * Kismet ' greater, and
children of the Prophet not less fanatical have before now
bowed their heads to the irresistible decrees of Fate. Were
it once conclusively demonstrated to the Begs and other
Bosnian fanatics that Destiny was against them, without
doubt the large majority would submit io force majeure.

But I think I have clearly proved to my readers
firom the lips of those who are the mouthpieces of the
dominant caste that at the present moment the Bosnian
Begs haye learned nothing and have forgottenjiotliing.
They will not, except under extreme compulsion, con-
sent in any way to ameliorate the cohdition of the rayah,
to grant him equality jDefore the law, to respect his
religion, or set a limit to their feudal licence. As a serf

' Sword-knives worn by Mahometan Bosnians.

'FORCE MAJEURE' NECESSARY^BUT WHENCE ^ 103

and pariah he went forth, as a serf and pariah he shall
return. Before the first foundations of peace and
security can be laid in Bosnia, force majeure is an abso-
lute necessity.

Force majeure \ but whence is it to come ?

There is at present no one element in Bosnia strong
enough to obtain a mastery over the rest The insurrec-
tion, though gaining ground every day, is too weak in
siege material and the sinews of regular war even to
hope to obtain possession of the larger towns, where the
armed native Mahometans and Turkish troops are at
present congregated. Serbia has retired from the con-
test ; but ify as is most probable, she should renew it,
Austro-Hungary would never consent to a Serbian an-
nexation of Bosnia. Montenegro will certainly annex
new cantons in the Herzegovinian Alps before she lays
down her arms ; but this does not touch Bosnia. From
Russia, Bosnia is too remote, and, besides, comparative
abstention from Bosnian affairs is the price paid by
Russia for Austro- Hungarian neutrality.

Of course we know the official theory — the theory of
statesmen who take their ideas about Bosnian afifairs
from our Embassy at Constantinople and our Consulate
at Serajevo — the comfortable notion that the Imperial
Ottoman authorities, backed by the Imperial Ottoman
troops, are capable and willing to break the opposition
of the Mahometan Slavs, and to introduce the new
regime of toleration — even-handed justice and parlia-
mentary liberty — ^into this pandemonium of fanaticism
and tyranny.

But I am coming to another part of my evidence.

As to the part which the Osmanli is playing in
Bosnia at the present moment, and as to the close

LETTER
X.

Necessity of
'force ma-
jeure ' in
Bosnia.

Whence is
it to come f

Not from
the Osmanli
as accord-
ing to
official
English
ideas.

104/ TYRANNY OF BEGS CONDEMNED BY MAHOMETANS.

LETTER
X.

Tyranny
of Begs con-
demned by
moderate
Mahome-
tans.

A Mahome ■
tan mer-
chant on thi
misdoings
of the Begs,

alliance that he has struck with the worst and most
fanatical elements in the province, I obtained some
astonishing revelations in the course of my conversations
with the chief representatives of the mercantile classes
in Kulen Vakup. I visited and spoke with several cf
these, and my guide and interpreter, who is on the best of
terms with them, was very useful in obtaining their con-
fidence. Their opinions were very different from those
of the Begs, whom they hate and detest, and far mor*
reasonable. M^chmed Omi<5, the leading merchant cf
the place, was particularly moderate and sensible, and I
will give you his views as a good sample of those of a
respectable part of the Mahometan bourgeoisie. He
said : * We are ruined ; trade is stopped ; public security
in abeyance ; and who is to blame ? First and foremost,
the Begs. It is their savagery and their oppression of
the rayah that has brought all this evil upon us.' He
instanced Tahir Beg Kulenovic as the worst of the petty
tyrants of the neighbourhood. I now heard deeds that
had hitherto rested on rayah evidence corroborated from
a Mahometan source. Omid was a staunch Mahome'tan ;
but he held in detestation the insults which this ruffian
perpetually heaped on the religion of the rayah.

I will give one example of what Tahir was in the
habit of doing. Ermanja, the ruins and desecrations of
whose church I Ijave already described to you, was this
Beg's property. \ Whenever he visited it he rode on
horseback into the church, and profaned it. After that
he was in the habit of dismounting, and, seizing the
priest's vestments, he made them into a kind of saddle,
set them on the priest's back, and then mounting on it
himself, made the wretched pope crawl along on all
fours and serve the purpose of a beast till the poor man

THE CONNIVANCE OF TURKISH OFFICIALS BOUGHT. 105

sank with exhaustion. Deeds like these old M^chmed
Omic held in abhorrence.

* And how/ I asked, * is it possible for the Begs to do
all this if even Mahometans are against it ? ' (

* Because/ said he, * they have their armed following'
— (this armed following, I may explain to your readers,
is in Bosnia nothing else than the Bashi-bazouks) — ' men
from the lowest classes, who do their bidding for pay and
plunder.' But he added that they could not do all this
were it not for the connivance of the Osmanli officials.
The native Slavonic lords of Bosnia hate the Osmanli, it
is true, as an alien intruder. But since Omar Pasha's
days they have found it advisable to effect a compromise
with the powers that be. The Begs are, or at any rate
were, rich, and there is hardly a Turkish official in the
province who is not in their pay. The Mtidir at Kulen
Vakup, though an Osmanli by birth, is the tool of the
dominant caste. But what Mdchmed Omic stated of the
Kaimakam of a neighbouring town,* also belonging to
the Stamboul bureaucracy, is still more damning, and
agrees but too well with the evidence I took down from
the O^ievo refugees. This Kaimakam, in league with the
worst of the neighbouring Begs, appears to have played a
leading part in the second day's arson, butchery, and
rapine at that unhappy village ; and I have already told
you that Ali Beg Kulenovic, a fat, jolly old Bosnian,
who can drink his five bottles of rum a day, but is by
no means a bad specimen of a Bosnian landlord, during

1 I understood at the time that
this was the Kaimakam of P^tro-
vatz, but Mr. Freeman, who knew
him personally, vouches for his
character and brings forward an
instance of his humanity, which I

have already cited on rayah evi-
dence. It is, however, more
probable that I was in error as to
the locality, than that a man of
Omid's character should have in-
vented the story.

LETTER
X.

Complicity
of Turkish
officials
with the
morepower'
ful and ty-
rannous
Begs,

Osmanli

support

bought.

io6 COMPLICITY OF OSMANLI IN NATIVE ELEMENTS,

LETTER
X.

Part played
by local re-
presentative
of Turkish
government
in the recent
massacres.

Monstrous
idea that
pacification
of Bosnia
should be
looked for
from Us-
manlis.

the minor outrages of the first day's raid on the villagers
distinguished himself by saving some girls and women
from the usual fate. Well, if Omi<5's account be correct,
he tried on the second day to exert his influence once
more in favour of comparative moderation with the
mingled gang of Redifs and Bashi-bazouks. But the
Kaimakam, the representative of the Turkish Govern-
ment, was for letting the ruffians have free vent. Words
passed between the two, and as the Kaimakam was
seconded by the more villanous among the Begs, he was
able to seize fat Ali, who has since been languishing in a
Turkish prison. Of the complicity between the Turkish
Government and the worst elements among the natives
its very last official act in the Herzegovina has given
new and convincing proof. Two of the Begs — Redji-
pa§i<5 and Rizvanbegovid — ^who are among the most
notorious oppressors of the rayahs, and whose iniquities
were among the principal causes of the first outbreak of
the insurrection in the Herzegovina, have just been
appointed to the command of the irregulars in that
province.

From what I have already said my readers will have
perceived that the pacification of Bosnia is hardly likely
to be accomplished, as English diplomatists seem to
imagine, by these Osmanli officials, nor is it likely that
ravishers, robbers, and assassins should be punished by
their sworn accomplices. Therefore, as far as I can see,
the only possible solution of the present difficulty is
•Austrian occupation. Many of the lesser Begs, as weU
as the Mahometan merchants both in Bosnia and in the
Herzegovina, are, as I have the best reasons for assuring
you, ready to welcome such an occupation. So far as the
Bosnian insurgents are concerned, I have the authority

NECESSITY OF AUSTRIAN OCCUPATION.

of one of their chiefs for saying that they would loyally
submit to such a measure — indeed, they would have very
little choice in the matter. The Turkish Government,
thoroughly occupied with the Russian war, would never
attempt a serious opposition, though it is true that feints
of possible resistance have been made on the frontier
near Ragusa, where some new guard- houses have been
constructed. Austria might well act in this matter as
the executor of Europe. The aim of our own Govern-
ment, the aim of all men who value the interests of
humanity or the lasting peace of Europe, should be to
induce the Austrian Government to fulfil this civilizing
mission.

The cr3dng necessity of the present moment, as I
cannot too often repeat, is the application oi force majeure
to control the fanatic elements of the province and to
expel the present Osmanli rulers, who prolong their pre-
carious dominion in Bosnia by pitting caste against caste
and creed against creed. A probationary period of con-
trol, the enforcement of public security, let us hope
education of a largely secular kind, would pave the way
for ultimate reconciliation between the warring elements
of Bosnia, and render home rule possible at last. Both
Mahometans and Christians in Bosnia are Slavs, both
hate the alien Turkish intruder, and both, even now, are
beginning to weary of civil strife.

As to the probable results of such a period of Euro-
pean or Austrian control on the balance of political
power in Bosnia and the numerical strength of the
various sectaries, I have obtained here at Kulen Vakup,
and along the Bosnian frontier, a variety of data which
strikingly corroborate a view that I have already ex-
pressed elsewhere, namely, that such a period of control

\io7

— V- :

LETTER
X.

Austrixin
occupation
only solu-
tion of the
difficulty.

Probable
ej^ects of
Austrian
government
on Bosnia.

io8

PROBABLE EFFECTS OF AUSTRIAN OCCUPATION

LEl^ER
X.

Probable
e feet of
Austrian
rule in
largely in-
creasing the
Christian
element.

and security would have the eflfect of largely strengthen-
ing the Christian element in the province, at present
numerically almost as two to one compared with the
Mahometan. Public security would enable foreign capi-
tal to develop the vast mineral and other resources of
the Bosnian momitains, and capital is Christian* All
economic laws would work in favour of the non>fatalistic,
and therefore most enterprising, part of the population.
It is not, perhaps, known beyond the Croatian frontier
that in the poor and arid tracts of the old Military Fron-
tier, thousands of hard-working peasants are only waiting
for Austrian occupation to emigrate in a body into Bos-
nia, and till the rich and at present uncultivated lands
beyond the border.

At Udbina I have already given you an instance of a
Mahometan population which, coming under the Austrian
sceptre, has gradually re-adopted Christianity. The fore-
fathers of the native Mahometans of Bosnia renegaded
originally from a Puritan form of Christianity ; and what
was possible in times past may be possible in the future.
Even the Begs, and notably some of the Kulenovid
family, have not forgotten their Christian ancestry, and
repeat perhaps even now the words of that fatalistic
chant sung by their fathers only a generation back, when
feudal and old-believing Bosnia marched against the
hosts of the * Giaour-Sultan ' Mahmoud,

Our fathers lost their faith of yore.
And we, perchance, can do no more.

Kulen Vakup, as I have already said, is even in Bosnia
celebrated for the peculiar rigour of its Mahometanism.
Indeed, in a- certain sense, it may be called the Delphi
of Mahometan Bosnia, since here exists what I can only

A MAHOMETAN ORACLE.

109

describe as a Mahometan oracle. In the last century a
pious family of the town made a pilgrimage to the Caaba,
and came home with such an odour of sanctity that they
have ever since been regarded as soothsayers. There are
two pythonesses of this family who go of nights to the
mosque, when they bow themselves before certain holy
stones, and become inspired of the oracles which they
impart next morning to those who have sought their
advice about futurity. Of these holy stones I learned that
they have on them old Arabic inscriptions, and that they
were brought in ancient times from near Medina. * Once,'
say the Bosniacs, ' Saint Mahomet was out hunting and
climbed up on to a rock to rest,' and ever since this
rock, from which the fragments in the mosque are taken,
has been esteemed holy. They keep also in this same
mosque certain smooth pebbles in a net which the true-
believers of Vakup let down into the water in times of
drought, and by this means obtain abundant rain ; but
great care is requisite, for if he that lets down the net
were to let it slip and the stones were to go to the
bottom, then — so I was told — the deluge would come
over again, and Kulen Vakup and all the world would
be drowned. I have, not seen the pebbles, but even- a
Giaour may have that privilege by paying down a thousand
ducats !

In Bosnia, in general, women are veiled and se-
cluded as they are veiled and secluded nowhere else in
Turkey in Europe. In Kulen Vakup their seclusion is
said to be greater than anywhere else in Bosnia. It is
far more rigorous than even at the neighbouring town of
Bihad for example. Except their mid-day pilgrimage
to the mosque, when no man may look on them, they
are entirely confined to the harem, and only on St.

LETTER
X.

Mahometan
oracle.

ieclusion
>f women at
^ukn
Vakup,

no ATTITUDE OF VAKUPERS TOWARDS CHRISTIANITY,

LKTTER
X.

George's Day — mark how these fanatics still reckon by
Christian festivals — are they allowed, as a great con-
cession, to walk about in the gardens. Indeed, the
greatest objection urge^ by Vakupers against Austrian
occupation is that it would interfere with the privacy of
their women. Yet even here, in this nest of fanaticism,
there is a saying (to be heard in other parts of Bosnia),
* Your cross does not weigh a hundred okas ; * and true
believers who have never read the Essays of Elia hesi-
tate not to repeat a suggestive little adage, which may be
translated —

What's the cross ? — a piece of wood !
And sucking pig, they say, is good.

LETTER XI.

FREE BOSNIA REVISITED (l).

The present insurrection justified by historic precedents. Croatian and
Dalmatian districts liberated in this and preceding centuries by in-
surgent Chitas. Instance of Lapatz. In insurgent territory once
more. Marvellous source of the Kerka. Insurgent peak-strong-
hold of Sienitza Grad. Entertained by Vojvode Paulo Vukanavi^.
His views on the insurrection. Necessity of an alliance with the
moderate part of the Mahometan population against the most
tyrannous Begs and Turkish officials. Negotiations with native
Mahometans thwarted by the Osmanlis. ' Post ' and ' telegraphs ' in
insurgent district.

May 12.

LTHOUGH I have already acquainted my
readers with the more melancholy results of
my recent journey, they may not be displeased
to obtain some less painful experiences of Free
Bosnia ' revisited/ and may pardon a few disquisitions on
insurgent politics suggested in the course of my recent
rambles. The parts of the insm-gent territory through
which I made my way lie almost entirely outside the
districts described on my previous visit, and in some
respects they surpassed what I had seen before in natu-
ral beauty and in the strength of the citadels of freedom.
There are certain pseudo-philanthropists — mostly of a
diplomatic turn of mind — ^who from time to time ask in-

LETTER
XI.

BOSNIAN INSURRECTION JUSTIFIED BY HISTORY,

LETTER
XI.

Historical
justification
of Bosnian
insurrec-
tion.

dignantly how the Bosniac rayahs could have committed
the mad folly of rising against their masters, when they
must know that it is beyond their power to snatth
Bosnia from the Turkish grip. (As if it had ever entered
the minds of the insurgents to imagine that they could
seize the whole province 1) To all such the history and
present condition of the neighbouring tracts of Dalmatia
and Croatia, that one must pass to approach the in-
surgent district, supply, to my thinking, a most elo-
quent reply. It is really hard to know when you actually
cross the Bosnian frontier on this side. There is no great
river to mark the boundary. Before and behind you —
different as is the political aspect of the two countries —
Nature still wears the same. As you climb the first steep of
Bosnian soil and look back on the Dalmatian and Croatian
border-lands that you are quitting, you see spread out
behind you just the same landscape that lies before you.
There are the same * polje * valleys, the same limestone
rocks, the same green forest-mountains; the people
are the same — in language, in physique, to a great
extent, in dress. How, indeed, should they be different ?
Only a few generations back they too were rayah sub-
jects of the Sultan, and the lands they tilled were under
the Vizier of Bosnia. Do you ask how they changed
their lot and passed under the sceptre of the Hapsburghs ?
The diplomatist will answer, ' by Imperialist victories.'
The natives of these frontier districts tell you a truer tale.
They tell you that their frontier was * rectified,' because
their grandfathers and great-grandfathers took the ' recti-
fication ' into their own hands. These frontier districts of
Dalmatia and Croatia have, in fact, been disintegrated
piecemeal from the Turkish lands behind them by just
the same process by which the little mountain tract that

BOSNIAN INSURRECTION VINDICATED BY HISTORyX 113

I have called * Free Bosnia ' is being carved out to-day.
There is nothing new about the present insurrection;
there is nothing new about the armed peasant bands that
have excited the rage of the English Consul at Serajevo.
Ask any Croatian or Dalmatian peasant of the border-
country, and he will tell you that the beech-forests and
limestone peaks that girdle his mountain valley sheltered'
just such insurgent 'ch^tas' as lurk to-day among the
opposite Bosnian ranges, and that the rude Bosnian
Vojvodes are only imitating at the present moment the
work of liberation which Croat and Dalmatian guerilla
chiefs — such as Jankovid and Smiliani<5 — ^a descendant
of whom I have already mentioned among the Bosnian
heroes of the hour,— effected in the Lika and elsewhere.
As to the desirableness of the work, no one can doubt
it who has visited these once Bosnian districts that have
been added to Christendom and Austria by this gradual
process of disintegration continued through two centuries.
I have just passed through the flourishing Croatian village
of Lapatz, reclaimed from the Turk almost within the
memory of man by these same insurgent ' chdtas.' Up
to that time the whole land was the property of two Begs
— a Kulenovid and a certain Ibrahim BaSi(^ whose
* cardak/ or country house, was on the site now occupied
^the Pravoslav Church — you can see the landmarks of
the two Mahometan lords stilL There were then in the
whole valley, exclusive of the residences of the two Begs,
exactly nine houses ; there is now a population of nearly
four thousand

I started on foot from Serb, on the Croatian frontier,
to make my way to the great insurgent stronghold of
Sienitza Grad, distant about a day's journey, on the
summit of a mountain of the same name. Two Bosnian

LETTER
XI.

Nothing
new about
the Bosnian
insurrec-
tton»

Districts
reclaimed
from Turks
informer
times by
same pro-
cess»

114

SOURCE OF THE KERKA.

LETTER
XI.

Source of
the JCerka,

Signs of
Turkish
havoc.

guides and a Croat, an ex-inspector of forests, accom-
panied me. Croatia was soon left behind us, and we
were making our way over an easy piountain swell
covered with stunted beech woods, overgrown with prim-
roses, bhie hepaticas, yellow anemones, and violets,
which perfumed every mountain breeze. Here and there
were scattered grey boulders, from whose chinks and
crevices the * zelembatz,' the great green lizard of these
lands, was perpetually darting into the sunlight, agleam
with gold and emerald. Presently came a steep descent
to the rivulet of Trogerla, which plunges forth, as its
name implies, from three grottoes in the rock ; then a
mysterious roaring sound filled me with wonder and
expectation, and, climbing round a rocky angle of the
gully, there broke upon my view something more like a
miracle than anything that I ever remember having seen.
This was the source of the Kerka, a superb cascade, or
rather series of cascades, leaping forth — but from where ?
The solid rock seemed to be converted into a roaring
cataract as by magic ! Here was a river darting with
millstream force from the roots of a cliff in which there
was no crevice visible, squirting forth from a m3niad of
imperceptible pores — as a natural phenomenon it seemed
almost uncanny.

Alas ! one cannot wander far in this country without
having other sights forced on one's notice besides the
marvels of Nature. The mountain path we followed led
presently between the blackened ruins of two burnt
villages — ^Veliki and Mali Svietnid — ^bumt by the Turks
September 20, 1876. The inhabitants had all fled in time,
but I passed the spot on the hillside where two herdsmen
were surprised and butchered.

Our way now led through mysterious labyrinths of

AN INSURGENT EAGLES NEST.

beech and pine, and then up a tremendous mountain
steep to the insurgent stronghold, Sienitza Grad. So
admirable is the position that up to the very last moment
of our ascent no sign of human habitation was per-
ceptible, much less of a camp where a hundred and fifty
armed men were congregated Only on reaching the
very spit of the mountain a crater-like hollow broke upon
my view, scooped out of the mountain summit by the
elements, and in which were clustered the huts of the
insiurgent 'ch^ta,' It was indeed a very eagle's nest,
commanding far and wide, range upon range, the moun-
tains of Free and Turkish Bosnia, cleft asunder far
below by the stupendous rock chasm of the Unnatz ;
while halfway down the mountain steep it overlooked
another spectacle, which might well keep alive in those
rude bosoms the spirit of resistance — the charred chaotic
remnants of the Christian village of BoboljuSa. For a
while drifting folds of fleecy cloud floated beneath our
gaze, obscuring the Alpine panorama in a sea of sunset
gold ; and then through a rift in the misty veil, set as in
an aureole of consecrated light, there opened out far
below a last evening glimpse of this small free land. It
would have been hard, as one stood amidst that rugged
garrison and looked down from that solemn cloudland
citadel, not to have caught some inspiration from th^
mountain air of liberty.

The local Voj voda, Paulo Vukanovid, seeing a stranger
arrive, stepped forward and, without further ado, wel-
comed me into his hut, after the usual hospitable fashion
of Free Bosnia ; and, during the two days that in the
prosecution of my researches I remained his guest, never
ceased to treat me with all the good cheer that insurgent
resources could supply. Thoi^ it happened to be a

LETTER
XI.

Insurgent
Chita of
Sienitza
Grad.

Enter-
tained by
Vojvode.

AN INSURGENT CHIEF ON THE INSURRECTION

LETTER
XI.

Enter-
tained by
Vojvode.

His view of

insurgent

politics.

Greek Church fast, which both he and his followers
observed with a rigour that surprised me, he killed a
lamb for his guest, and despatched one of his men to
catch most excellent trout for me in the Unnatz. Paulo
was quite a young fellow, a native Bosniac (as were all
his followers to a man), bom at Petrovatz, but who had
spent most of his life at Mostar. I found him extremely
amiable, not a bit fanatical, and by no means illiterate.
Wherever he went he carried about with him a well-worn
volume of Serbian heroic lays, whole pages of which he
would repeat to me by rote with a kind of simple delight
that did one's heart goodj

We had many talks about the prospects of Free
Bosnia, and I found that he shared to the full my opinion
that the true policy of the insurgents was to aim at little,
not to beat themselves against the bars in a vain attempt
to conquer the whole province, but rather to form a
small mountain State — a little Montenegro, which might
gradually become the nucleus of something larger. I
asked him what course the Bosnian insiurgents would
adopt in view of the probable occupation of the province
by Austria, for I have no doubt that these mountaineers
are in a position to make a very obstinate resistance even
against regular troops ignorant of the intricacies of their
strongholds. *We would submit at once,' he replied,
* and willingly, too ; for we have never fought for anyr
thing else than guarantees of good government, which
the Austrians would give us, but which the Turks neither
will nor can.' But supposing this desirable solution was
not forthcoming, and the struggle had to be continued,
Vukanovi<5, like all the other insurgent leaders with
whom I have spoken, admitted that it was most neces-
sary, if possible, to come to terms with the native

THE INSURGENTS AND NATIVE MAHOMETANS,

Mahometans and obtain their co-operation against the
Osmanli and the worst of the Begs.

For the Bosnian insurrection to attain success on
a large scale such an understanding is indispensable,
for it must be remembered that there is a very im-
portant distinction to be drawn between Bosnia and
Herzegovina.

The Herzegovinian insurgents have achieved more
striking successes against the Turks than their Bosnian
brothers, not only because of their proximity to Monte-
negro, but because in the rural districts there are hardly
any Mahometans.

But in Bosnia it is far otherwise. Here there is a
very large rural Mahometan population, which to a great
extent has neutralised the efforts of the rayah. And
where, as in Southern Bosnia, the insurgents have
achieved so much success as to carve out a little free dis-
trict of their own, this success has been due to the fact
that in this district there were no Mahometan peasants,
and that the conditions of the struggle thus approached
those of the Herzegovina. Nothing, for example, would
seem more feasible than for the insurgents by concen-
trating their forces to have cleared the Kraina,or Turkish
Croatia, of the enemy, and held this mountainous angle
of country, which juts out into the friendly territory of
Croatia, against all comers. But here are a number of
small country towns and larger villages inhabited by
Mahometans, and all the efforts of the insiurgents have
ended in the occupation of a few isolated mountain
ranges.

But why, it may be asked, did not the insurgents
effect a compromise here with the true-believers ?

There is, as I have already intimated to my readers,

LETTER
XI.

Attitude of
insurgents
towards
native Ma-
hometans.

NEGOTIATIONS WITH NATIVE MAHOMETANS.

LETTER
XI.

Negotia-
tions

between in-
surgents
and native
Mahome-
tans.

a party among the native Mahor^etans not by any means
averse to joining hands with the rayah against the hated
aliens, the Osmanli bureaucracy, as well as against the
more tjo-annous of the native Begs. And the insurgents
on their side have not been by any means blind as to the
advisability of such an agreement

To what, then, is their failure, due ?

I have obtained most interesting evidence on this
subject frotn the insurgent chief Hubmeier, a Slovene by
birth, who has been the principal insurgent leader in that
part of Bosnia. He said that he had entered into several
promising negotiations with the native Mahometans, and
even the landlords, but all had been frustrated by the want
of unity amongst the insurgents. Thus he succeeded in
putting himself in communication with a certain Suli
Aga, a most influential Mahometan chief, of the impor-
tant town of NovL By means of an Austrian merchant
who was a friend of both parties a meeting between the
insurgent leader and the Aga was arranged and actually
took place at Costainitza, across the Croatian border.
Good-will was not wanting on either side, but the agree-
ment shattered, like every other attempt at pacification
in Bosnia, on the question of guarantees.

Speaking in the name of the Mahometan Slavs of his
district, or at any rate of the more moderate among them,
Suli Aga said, as nearly as Hubmeier could give me his
words, * If we submit to you or take your part, we want
two things — not only that you should give us security
that this agreement and every one of our privileges should
be respected by all your bands, but also that ypu should
show yourselves strong enough to protect us against the
Osmanli. You are chief here, and I believe what you

'DIVIDE ET IMPERA:

say ; but there are other Vojvodas who do not own your
authority — what security can you give us against your
own free-lances, and are you united enough to protect us
from the Nizam ? We would rather see you at our sidfe
than the Osmanll, but at the same time we do not wish
to share the fate of renegades/

I could give you the particulars of another such nego-
tiation entered into by another insurgent chief with some
of the more moderate Mahometan Begs and Agas near
Stari Maidan. The affair was taking a favourable turn
when the Stamboul officials got wind of it

Up to this point the Turkish Government had taken
very little heed of the revolt in this district, but the
instant this intelligence reached them they saw the neces>
sity for energetic action. There is nothing that the
Osmanli so much fears in Bosnia as an entente cordiale
between the native Slavs, Christian and Mahometan.
The whole — the only— basis of Ottoman rule in Bosnia
is the perpetual alienation of the rival sectaries among
the natives. There is no more damning impeachment of
Turkish rule in Bosnia than the fact that it is the direct
interest of the governors to foment and render eternal the
brutal fanaticism of the governed. Aliens as they are —
with alien interests, an alien language, alien morals — they
know that if Slavonic Christians and Slavonic Mahomet-
ans in Bosnia were once to patch up their mutual rival-
ries such a reconciliation would seal the fate of their alien
rigime. These parasites from Stamboul have battened,
and batten everyday, on the internecine feuds of unhappy
Bosnia. The mutual hatred of Christian and Mahometan
is their daily bread It is not too much to say that there
is not a murder of a rayah serf, a violation of a Christian

Negotta-

tiOHS

between /«•
surgents
and native
Mahome-
tans.

Motto of
Turkish
bureaucrats
in Bosnia

Divide et

mpera,'

WffO IS THE MISCHIEF-MONGER IN BOSNIA?

LETTER
XI.

Attempts at
recoHcilia^
tian between
rayah iu"
surgents
and native
Mahome-
tans

thwartedby
Ottoman
employis.

'Post' and
* telegraphs*
in insuT"
gent diS'
trict, i

girl, a raid on a rayah village, but has its market value to
the Ottoman emplcyt

Thus this negotiation between the insurgent and
Mahometan chieftains was looked on by the Turkish
officials — and looked on justly — as more dangerous to
their interests than a dozen insurgent victories. The
Stamboul authorities had hitherto contented themselves
with looking on at the struggle in that district, not,
perhaps, without some cynical complacency, — ^for why
should not the Bosnian Slavs of either profession bleed
each other if they chose ? And if the horrors of this inter-
necine war intensified the animosities of the opposing
castes and creeds, might not the insurrection after all be
playing into their own bureaucratic hands ?

But affairs wore a very different complexion now that
Christian and true-believer began to seek a reconciliation.
The officials at Serajevo, who had hitherto left the armed
native Mahometans to hold their own as best they might
against the insurgent rayahs, on getting' wind of this
negotiation at once hurried 5,000 Nizams (or Turkish
regulars) to the neighbourhood of Stari Maidan. The
insurgents at the approach of this overwhelming force
withdrew to their mountain fastnesses, and the native
Ma ometans got up most loyal demonstrations of affec-
tion for their Osmanli protectors.

In the camp at Sienitza Grad every one took a most
cheerful view of the situation, and I may mention as an
example of the precaution they exercise against any sur-
prise from the side of the Turks that a watch is kept day
and night, and a telegraphic system of signals from
mountain to mountain keeps thi whole insurgent territory
well informed as to every motion of the enemy. Every

'POST' AND * TELEGRAPHS' IN INSURGENT DISTRICT 121

day, too, a post goes from end to end of Free Bosnia,
calling at the various *chdtas*; and I may add that my
hospitable chieftain resorted to a most irrefragable argu-
ment of coming victory, taking the' shoulder-blade from
the lamb of my repast and drawing therefrom most certain
omens of the confusion of the Turks and the triumph of
the Serbian cause.

LETTER
XI.

LETTER
XII.

Athletic
sports I
among the
insurgents,

LETTER XII.

FREE BOSNIA REVISITED (ll.).

Athletic sports among the Insurgents, Croatian cricket. A miserable
night. A ruined king's highway. King Beta's treasure and the
dragon Princess. Reflections on material ruin of Bosnia under the
Turks. Is Mahometanism to blame t The question not one of Reli-
gion but of Civilization. The ' Vila ' or Slavonic nymph haunting
Resanovce Cave. Survival of heathen superstitions among Bosnian
Slavs, a connecting link between contending creeds.

May 17.

AKING leave of my hospitable friends at Sienitza
Grad, another beautiful day's walk brought me
to the insurgent * ch^ta ' of Cam^nia, where the
Pope Ilija Bilbija at present commands. It
was a lovely spring evening when I arrived, and I found
the whole troop assembled on a grassy mountain lawn
engaged in athletic sports. Of course, what could an
Englishman do but join them ? And really, but for the
outlandish costume of these * muscular Christians,' one
might just as well have been in the Vale of the White
Horse. First we had * metati ' — nothing else, I can assure
you, than the good old English game pi * putting the stone.'
The insurgents showed great strength but little skill —

Bosnian bom and Bosnian bred,
Strong i' the arm and weak i' the head^

as certain also of our own poets hath said. At any rate.

INSURGENT ATHIETIC SPORTS,

123

though I am by no means an athlete, I found that by a
little judicious knack I could throw as far as the best,
and felt rather like little Jack when he did the giant !
Then we had football — a primitive football, with a ball
compounded of insurgent caps, and with no goal in par-
ticular—but still football. Then there was another game
of * chevy,' the details of which are too long to describe-
here ; but all these sports have a real significance. ( I
believe that there is no other people in Europe endowed
so largely with the English love of field sports as these
much-maligned Southern Slavs ; and surely it is a most
hopeful sign^The traveller in the Black Mountain
meets with just the same experience ; the same in the
Herzegovina ; the same among even the grave Mahomet-
ans of Bosnia, who have inherited this along with many
of their old Slavonic customs. The true believers of Kulen
Vakup, for example, may be seen of an evening ' putting
the stone ' with a will. In the Croat villages just across
the Bosnian border (and doubtless the same may be seen
in Bosnia too) I found the lads gathered on the village
green playing a game called * lopta,' or * crivat,' which is
nothing else than a rudimentary form of cricket, with
primitive bats, stumps, bowlers, wicket-keepers, fielders,
all complete. May one perhaps look forward to the day
when Bashi-bazouk and Rayah shall join their teams in
less warlike contest, or even with prophetic eye decipher
a challenge from the 'All-Bosnian Eleven* to the M.C.C. !
The night I passed in this camp was miserable
enough, and made one realize the hardships these poor
people must undergo. The pope's shed, where I slept,
or tried to sleep, was a typhus liospital without doctors.
BuTrKaTfinished my investigations, and was glad to be
off at a very early hour next morning.

LETTER
XII.

Insurgent

football.

Croatian,
cricket.

124

KING BELA AND THE DRAGON PRINCESS.

LETTER

XII.

A ruined \
king's
highway » '

King Beta
and the
dragon
princess.

Our way now led over the steeps of Mount Korita,
through beautiful forest paths, there growing here and
there among the trees one of the most delicious shrubs I
have ever seen, covered with bunches of pink flowers that
had all the scdnt of garden hyacinths. Then we followed
an ancient road — now a mere mule-track and impassable
for vehicles, but showing here and there, eaten into the
rock pavement, ancient wheel tracks — such as may be
seen in the exhumed streets of Roman cities. Further
on was another trace of bygone industry and civilization —
a well, or rather stone cistern, beside what once had been
the highway, atid (removed to a churchyard below) a
square column that within tlie memory of man had stood
beside the well. My Bosniac guide said that there were
five such columns along the road, and that he had fol-
lowed it to the ruins of King Bela's castle, on a mountain
far in the interior of Bosnia. Everybody knew, he said,
that this was once the King's highway ; that King Bela
had made the road, and when the Turks came he fled out
of the country by it The only difficulty about the flight
was, it seems, suggested by the King's daughter, who
asked the pertinent question, * What shall we do with the
golden treasiure, father ? ' * Thou shalt become a dragon,
my daughter,* grimly replied the Monarch, * and keep it
to the end of the world.' So to this day in a cavern
above the ruins of King Bela's castle of Germetz the
royal serpent keeps watch and ward over her father's
hoards. But if any one who has been baptized shall dis-
cover the dragon and make the sign of the cross, the
scales will fall from the beautiful princess, and he
may obtain bride and dowry together. So, at least, the
Bosnian assured me, and I am convinced that he was a
truthful man.

MATERIAL RUIN' OF BOSNIA UNDER THE TURK'S. \i25

Yes — ^my Bosnian was right. These legends of dragon
guards and buried treasures and transformed princesses
have a truth and application in Bosnia as it exists
at this moment which even the most unskilled in
allegories may read and inwardly digest ! Making one's
way along ruined highways, gazing on the monuments of
perished civilization, one has ample leisure to realize that
it is no fancied spell that locks up the treasures of this
rich land in the bowels of the earth. The myrmidons of
this dead weight of Oriental barbarism have blasted each
progressive effort of Bosnian industry more effectually
than all the fire-spitting phantoms of Oriental magic.
Arts and learning — ^what little there ever was in this un-
happy land — have long since vanished, or left their traces
only in the vaults of some retired monastery or amid the
crumbling ruins of some feudal castle. In Serajevo, the
capital of the country, with a population of 60,000 souls,
there is not a single book shop, and books are seized
upon the frontier like so much contraband of war. The
rich frescoes of Bosnian kings and Serbian emperors are
mutilated with Turkish bullet-holes. History, geography,
everything that can expand the mind is hunted from the
schools ; science is unborn ; and the small fanatic train-
ing that the children do receive is worse than none at all.
This ruined highway through the wilderness is but a
sample of the industrial prostration of the whole land.
Wander where you will in Bosnia, it is still the same —
roads fallen to rack and ruin, bridges broken down, or
where some mightier work of engineering still withstands
the hand of time, like the massive stone bridges of Koinitza
or Mostar, the curious traveller discovers that they are
the handiwork of Serbian kings or Roman emperors.
The gold veins of the Bosnian mountains, which brought

LETTER
XII.

Monumenfs
of perished
civilization
in Bosnia.

/S ISLAM THEN TO BLAME?

LETTER
XII.

'^Material
ruin of
Bosnia
nndetf the
Turk.

Is Isldm to
blame t

such wealth to Roman and Ragusan in former ages, the
copious salt mines of Tuzla, the vast coal measures of the
Bosna Valley, the neighbouring iron mines of Foinica,
the quicksilver veins of KreSevo, known to be as rich as
any in Europe — all alike are deserted, unworked, her-
metically sealed Timber which might supply a hundred
dockyards rots away year by year in the stately Bosnian
forests because rivers which might be rendered navigable
whirl their useless waters over rapids and shallows. The
one Bosnian railway that was to be has foundered, and
every enterprise of foreign capital has foundered like it
English and German companies, tempted by these vast
resources to risk the cost and labour of exploiting them,
have seen their industry paralysed by want of roads, want
of bridges, want of public security and public faith, and
their money sucked away in the unfathomable sink of
Imperial Ottoman corruption. Look where one will in
Bosnia, the melancholy conclusion is forced on one that
the mediaeval civilization of the Christian kingdom was
distinctly on a higher level than the nineteenth centuiy
standard of the provincial Turk.

Is it Islim, then, that is to blame ? Is the Puritan
service of the mosques so far below the quasi idolatry of
Greek and Roman churches ? Is Mahometanism per se
more opposed to human science than the rival creeds ?
Most certainly not ; and those who try to make the
question of the future of these lands a religious question
confuse and conceal the issues. It is not Mahometanism
itself that is so pernicious here ; but it is Mahometanism
as impressed and perverted by the characteristics of the
Ottoman race. It is the race that determines the charac-
ter of the religion, and not the religion the character
of the race. It is because the associations of the

GRECO-ROMAN' CIVILISATION v, ORIENTAL.

127

Osmanli lie with Asiatic stagnation — because as a race
they are intolerant, unprogressive, and apparently in-
capable of taking a high culture— that their form of Ma-
hometanism, the form which they have imposed upon
the Bosnian Slavs, is prohibitive of progress. So, too,
on the other side, the question is not whether certain low
forms of Christianity are peculiarly favourable to culture,
but whether the races which profess these creeds are by
their historical antecedents associated with the cause of
civilization. And undoubtedly they are bound up in
every possible way with that civilization which, of all the
civilizations that have ever existed in the world, has
shown itself most capable of progress — the Greco-Roman.
While the Christian creeds under notice are borne along
in a great current which they can neither fathom nor
control, the Mahometanism of the Ottoman lies rotting
in the slough of Oriental stagnation. These Christian
creeds move with the times, and may be trusted to effect
their own * euthanasia ' — that happy despatch which Sla-
vonic Romanism has already effected on itself at Ragusa
and elsewhere, and which Slavonic orthodoxy is ac-
complishing more slowly but not less surely in the schools
of Neusatz and Belgrade. But Islim under the Turks is
a mere dead weight of helpless inertia. The question is
not, and never was, one between Christianity as such and
Mahometanism as such, but one between Western pro-
gress and Asiatic stagnation. Turn out the Osmanli
bureaucracy from Bosnia, establish Western control, cut
off the native Mahometan from his Oriental associations,
and it may yet be found that Islam in Bosnia is no more
opposed to liberal ideas than it was amongst the Moors
of Spain.

But I am recalled from such more general reflections

LETTER
XII.

The ques-
tion one
between
civiliza-
tions, not
religions.

THE VILA OF RESANOVCE CAVE.

LETTER
XII.

The Vila
or Slavoni •
nymph: her
grot at
Resanovce.

Her per-
sonal ap-
pearance.

on the creeds which to-day contend for mastery in Bosnia,
to the relics of something older than either Mahometan-
ism or Christianity, without the mention of which these
little sketches of Free Bosnia would be incomplete.

Our way led us to a retired gorge where axe clustered
one or two huts belonging to the village of Resanovce
that had escaped the Turkish destroyer when he burnt
the rest of this straggling hamlet. Here we stopped to
ask for water, which was brought us fresh and cool from
a cavern in the rocky steep above. They said it came
from * the Vila^s basin.' Now as the Vila is nothing else
than the nymph of Slavonic heathendom, my curiosity
was naturally aroused, and by the exercise of a little
judicious diplomacy I succeeded in obtaining from a
native of the village a full and particular account of the
personal appearance and attributes of the guardian
nymph of the grot. At first the good man was a little
shy, but when he saw that I took a S)nnpathetic interest
in the Vila and her doings, he unbosomed to me all he
knew about her with an air of profound faith, which
showed that the Vila is believed in as sincerely at Resa-
novce as was any nymph of pagan days.

The Vila who lives in Resanovce Cave has long fair
hair and blueish eyes, and is clad in a. light white smock.
My informant could not swear that any one he knew had
seen her, but it was a matter of public notoriety that many
had seen her footprints, which are very like a goose's.
Besides, once upon a time a certain villager of the name
of Vukotid had actually caught and wedded her. The
Vila had two children by her mortal husband — a boy and
a girl, — but she never took to the little boy, and gave all
the new clothes to the little girl. So the two children
grew up, and very strange wayward children they were ;

THE VILA AND HER CHILDREN,

"Miy

with restless wandering eyes, and with two little red caps,
which, however, their mother kept locked up in a box.
But the children were always sullen, and would not join
in the games or the * kolo' dance, till one night, when they
had been unusually naughty and had kept crying for their
little red caps, their mother said, * Well, then, you shall
have them ! ' and, unlocking the box, she gave them to
her brats, saying, —

Dance and play
While you may.^

Thereupon the children ran off to the * kolo' dance, but
hardly had they lifted a foot from the ground when they
disappeared, and were never seen again. But the Vila
lives still in Resanovce Cavern, which goes so deep into
the earth that though men have been along it a day's
journey with torches, they have never found the end.
And there are her basins in the rock whence the Resa-
novce folk fetch their water to drink, and when there is
sickness in the village the sick are carried up to the Vila's
basins and bathed in her holy water, and thus are healed
of their diseases. And on great feast days sometimes
you may hear the Vila singing in the dark recesses of the
cavern, and on such days when folk go to fetch water
they are often well splashed for their pains.

By a strange irony of fate it has come to this, that
these still surviving relics of old Slavonic heathendom are
to-day the one religious link between Greek, Latin, and
Mahometan in Bosnia. The children of the Prophet in
Kulen Vakup have their Vila too, and turn the eye of
faith not only to Mecca but to Mount Klek, across the

1 In the original Bosnian, *Sko<5i nogo NedeS mnogo.'

LETTER
XII.

The Vilas,
ckildren.

130

STILL EXISTING BONDS OF UNION

LETTER
XII.

St, Alias.

Still exist-
ing bonds
of union
among
Bosniacs, m
Christian A
and Ma- y
hometan. \

■ J

Croatian frontier — the Brocken of the Southern Slavs,
where all the unhallowed sprites from Bohemia to the
Black Mountain gather together on St George's Day,
lighting up the whole mountain-top with a weird galaxy of
sparks. And were I writing a treatise on Bosnian folk-
lore I could tell you more of the heathen worship which
these Vakup true-believers pay on the ist of August to
St Elias ; for it is certain that in all these lands the
mantle of the Slavonic Thunder-god has fallen on the
Prophet of the fiery chariot In Croatia, as we have
already seen, the Angels have tripped into the footsteps of
the Vila.

To-day, in this unhappy land, look where we will, we
see nothing but divisions — barriers political, social, and
religious. But whenever we go back a step, whether we
look at the reijics of. tjie. primitive family-XJiganization of
the Slavs as they still exist in the country districts among
rayah and Mahometan alike, or whether, overlooking
cre,ed and caste, we examine that common national
character to which a common origin gives currency, a
stamp of race, with cruel traits perhaps, but in the main
good-humoured, conciliatory, deliberate, and sober; or
whether we look on at children's games and village sports ;
or whether even we go back to these still surviving super-
stitions of heathen antiquity, — ^wherever we turn our gaze,
our search reveals the still existing bonds of union, of
which the strongest and most binding is a common
mother tongue, spoken alike by Bosnian Christian and
Bosnian Mahometan, and spoken, too, beyond the fron-
tier by Serb and Montenegrin, Slavonian, Croat, and
Dalmatian \ intelligible, besides, to Bulgarian, Bohemian,
and Slovene.

LETTER XIII.

ALBANIA AND THE EASTERN KEY OF THE ADRIATIC.

Visit to Albania and Durazzo. Importance of Durazzo in fast ages.
As a Turkish town. Monuments of ancient splendour and modern
degradation. Flotsam and jetsam of antiquity. Reflections suggested
by present state of Dyrrhachium, Contrast between Turkish adminis-
iration and lively spirit of Albanians. The Highlanders of Turkey.
Tosks and Gheggas and their respective Greek and Montenegrin aji-
nities. The Miridites. Possibilities of Italian Protectorate in
A Ibania. Pessimist views of situation there among Turkish employis.
Preparations of Greek Committees for revolt in Epirus. The Ma-
hometan population biding its time

Ragusa: May 27.

HAVE just returned from a short trip to
Albania, and more especially to that city which
from the traveller's point of view anciently
stood to the eastern shores of the Adriatic in
the same relation as Brindisi still stands to the Italian
Durazzo — Durs, as the Albanians call her, better known,
perhaps, to English readers as the classic Dyrrhachium —
owed its former importance not only to the fact of its
being the most convenient port at the point where the
Adriatic cul de j«^ begins to narrow and the Italian shore
draws near to that of the Balkan peninsula — not only to
its being opposite to the great Italian harbour of Brindisi,
but to its standing at the embouchure of the main pass

LETTER
XIII.

Dyrrha-
chium and
Durazzo.

132

IMPORTANCE OF DURAZZO IN THE PAST,

LETTER
XIII.

Importance
of Durazzo
in past ages.

Rattle of
Durazzo,
A.D. 1081 :
Robert
Guiscard
defeats the
Emperor
Alexius
and his
Varan-
gians.

that conducted the land traffic from Thessalonica, Con-
stantinople, and the furthest East to meet the Adriatic
seaways to West and North. Durazzo Was the western
terminus of the great commercial highway to the East,
the Via Egnatia, which was barred from debouching in a
more northerly direction by the mighty parallel ranges of
what is now Bosnia and the mountain knot-work of
Montenegro and North Albania. Thus Durazzo stood
to Brindisi in much the same relation with regard to
the Greek and Latin worlds as Calais stands to Dover ;
commercially she stood to Venice as at the present
.day New York stands to Liverpool. Thus in all
past ages, whether as a Greek republic (known also
as Epidamnos), a Roman colony, a Byzantine munici-
pality, or dependency of Venice, Durazzo ranked among
the most important commercial cities in the whole of
Eastern Europe. Whenever the West moved its aggres-
sive force against the East, from the time of the Roman
civil wars — for the conflict between Pompey and Caesar
was in some sense a conflict between East and West— to
the day when the Norman invaders of the Byzantine
Empire threatened to make Durazzo the Hastings of the
Eastern world (and, by some strange fatality, it was
beneath these walls that the English exiles who fought as
mercenaries in the service of the Greek Emperor tried to
avenge the shame of Senlac on the kinsmen of the Con-
queror) — in every age, classical and mediaeval, Durazzo
has been regarded by the ambition of Latin Europe as
the most important stepping-stone to Greek and Oriental
conquest — the first and richest prize of successful valour
What, then, is the Durazzo of the Turk? It was
with no ordinary feelings of curiosity — my mind filled
with the memories of her mighty past — that I took my

DURAZZO FROM THE SEA.

133

Durazzo
from the
sea.

Stand on the deck of the little Austrian Lloyds' steamer letter
that now forms almost the only link between Durazzo ^'"'
and the outside world to catch the first glimpse of the
modem Albanian town. The bare limestone ranges of
Dalmatia and the Black Mountain had been long left in
our wake, and, as the steamer sped along the Albanian
coast, gave place to hills of a more fertile formation, over-
grown with luxuriant verdure, infinitely refreshing to the
eye wearied with the wilderness of the Dinaric Alps, but
with fields and houses how few and far between ! Then
we pa:ssed the promontory of Cape Pali, which, jutting
out into the Adriatic, offers a welcome bulwark against
the force of the boreal gales, and is the northern arm
of the bay which forms the harbour of Durazzo. In this
bay the steamer anchored, but some way from the shore,
as the harbour has to a great extent been allowed to silt
up, and no attempt to improve or in any way secure it
has been made by the Turkish authorities. From the
sea opens the best view of Durazzo as it still exists,
extending up the hillside, enclosed in a triangle of
mediaeval walls. The walls in their present state, as I
discovered from an almost effaced inscription on the
northern tower, date from the year 1474 — fi*om the period
of Venetian dominion, when, in the universal anarchy of
the Balkan peninsula, the overthrow of the commercial
empire of Byzantium, and the ravages of the Turks, the
fortunes of the city were at a very low ebb. There can
be little doubt — and the remains of old walls on the hills
and plain about bear out the assertion — that Durazzo in
her palmier days occupied a much larger area than that
enclosed by the fifteenth century walls. But the few
hundred houses that compose the modem townlet do
not nearly occupy even this more limited area, and the

134

DURAZZO UNDER THE TURKS.

LETTER
XIII.

Squalor
and degra-
dation of
Turkish
Durazxo.

Relics of
antiquity.

whole of the upper town is now an aching void, set apart
at the present moment for Turkish soldiers. As one
lands on the cranky wooden pier and makes one's way
into the narrow streets through a gloomy sea-gate which
seems the portal of a dungeon, the melancholy impres-
sions suggested by the first sight of modem Durazzo from
the sea are increased by the signs of squalor and stagna-
tion around. From the Lloyds' agent here I learned that
the whole population, including that of the dirty little
suburbs outside the east gate, amounts to no more than
4,000 souls. He told me that trade was almost extinct.
In ordinary years there was a small export of com and
oil from Durazzo and the neighbourhood to Trieste ; but
the commercial intercourse with Italy, the overland
traffic with Stamboul, have long since vanished, and now
even the export of com has been prohibited by reason of
the war. Nay, the very channels of Durazzo's former
affluence have by a strange irony of fate been perverted
to add misery to her present degradation, and the
splendid maritime canal, which once cut across the penin-
sula on which she stands and gave two havens to the
city, has partly silted up and partly spread itself in a
great stagnant pool which makes Durazzo a perpetual
fever haunt.

But what a field for the antiquary ! I do not mean
that classic temples and palaces still rear themselves
amid the mins of Dyrrhachium. There is nothing here
to compare with the hoary piles of Treves or Nismes, of
Spalato, or Pola, or Verona. Time and the Turk have
done their work too well for that ! But in the smaller
firagments, the flotsam and jetsam of ancient magnificence,
Durazzo exceeds any old-world city I have ever seen.
In the courtyard of the Turkish Konak, whither I pro-

RELICS OF DYRRHACHIUM,

I3S

ceeded, to be informed that without a special order from
the Sublime Porte no one could view the antiquities of
Durazzo (by which he meant the mediaeval walls) amidst
filth and rubble lay two beautiful monuments of Hellenic
art, the torsos of a hero and a goddess, both of super-
human mould ; and near lay a slab in the very act
of being broken up by the barbarian, but the pieces of
which I collected and put together. On this slab was a
Greek inscription in iambic verse, recording how a
Byzantine prince built one of the towers of the ancient
city.* The tower in which it was originally fixed was still
existing only the other day, but the Turks had pulled it
down to hunt, I believe, for treasure ! Despite my appeal
for mercy, I Can hardly hope that the inscription will long
survive it ; but one half of it may endure a little longer,
as it has been made use of to support the wooden pillar
of a cranky Turkish verandah !

In the streets people follow you with handfiils of silver
coins, most of them from the Dyrrhachian mint, coined
in the days of the old Greek Republic ; and it is note-
worthy, as attesting her ancient commercial importance
and the consequent activity of the mint, that the cow and
cal^ or gardens — if so they be— of Alcinous, displayed
upon her coins, are familiar to every numismatist. Stuck
anyhow into the pavement, the gateways, the walls of the
modem houses, are the waifs of Durazzo's shipwrecked for-
tunes — a Corinthian capital, a Roman inscription, the frag-
ments of a temple cornice ; the turbaned pillars that mark
the last resting-place of true-believers are economically
wrought firom the shafts of pagan columns, and Roman
gravestones mingle with the Turkish. The city walls,

' I notice that this inscription has been given by Hahn [Albanesischt
Studien).

LETTER
XIII.

Monuments
of Hellenic
art and
Turkish
Vandalism

Relics of

Dyrrha-

chium.

136 REFLECTIONS ON PRESENT STATE OF^DURAZZO

LETTER
XIII.

Durazzo at
the moment
of Turkish
conquest.

Turkish
rule more
odious/or
what it does
not do than
even for
what it
does.

the exterior of which I succeeded in exploring— taking
French leave, as I could not get Turkish — are a vast
museum of ancient monuments.

But where are those mightier relics of antiquity men-
tioned as existing here by Barlettius, the contemporary of
Skanderbeg? I looked in vain for the 'consecrated
buildings, the temples august and sumptuous, the statues
of kings and emperors, the mighty colossus of Hadrian
standing aloft at the Cavalla Gate ; the amphitheatre
lying to the west of the city, constructed with wondrous
art and beauty, and with walls strengthened and adorned
with towers and works of splendour.' At the moment
of Turkish conquest all these existed at Durazzo ; it was
reserved for the Asiatic barbarian to level with the dust
what Goth and Avar, Serb, Bulgarian, and Norman had
respected. Yet, after all, it is less the actual ruin of
what has existed that rouses the indignation of the
observer than the absence of anything to worthily supply
its place. To me the sight of the squalid rows and
beggarly hovels of modem Durazzo is more eloquent as
to the evils of Turkish rule than the blackened ruins of
rayah villages and all the monuments of Bashi-bazouk
ferocity. To me Turkish rule is infinitely more perni-
cious for what it does not do than for what it does.
Great cities in other parts of Europe have passed away
even more completely than Durazzo, but others have
sprung up to fulfil their functions in the world's economy.
To go no fiirther than the Adriatic shores, Salona lives
again in the modem Spalato, and Aquileja has found her
commercial representatives in Venice and Trieste. But
Durazzo in her decrepit age has left no children. The
commercial highway between Europe and Asia has sunk
into a mule track ; but no railroad supplies its place.

THE HIGHLANDERS OF TURKEY.

137

The merchant navy has vanished from her waters, but it
frequents no rival port ; it has simply ceased to be.
Really, the Sick Man's passion-fits of savagery are quite
a vivifying break to this normal paralysis of all the most
necessary fiinctions of government — to this brutal torpor
and squalid negligence, that have converted what was
once Dyrrhachium into a fever-stricken hamlet — to this
reign of Chaos,

At whose felt approach and secret might
Art after art goes out, and all is night.

However, the narcotic fiimes of Ottoman administration
do not seem to have affected the character of the race
that peoples Durazzo and its neighbourhood. The brisk,
lively tread, the haughty bearing, the keen, flashing eyes,
the powerful yet finely-chiselled features, less, as it seemed
to me, in contradiction with pure Hellenic types than
those of any other race, the modem Greeks included ;
the white, flowing fustanella, calling up at once remi-
niscences of Roman warriors ; the carnation vest — a male
costume . out-and-out the most magnificent in Europe
— ever3rthing reminds me that I am among people
neither Turk nor Slav. These are the meet compatriots
of Skanderbeg and Ali of Jannina — Albanians, Skipetars,
* children of the rock,' — the Highlanders of Turkey —
the most warlike and indomitable race that owns alle-
giance to the Sultan.

The Albanians about Durazzo, and indeed the whole
group of clans, Mahometan and Christian, that lie to
the north of the Shkumbi river and the ancient Egnatian
Way, belong to the Ghegga division of the race \ those
to the south of this line, including the non-Greek popu-
lation of Epirus, being known by the general appellation

LETTER
XIII.

Albanian
character-
istics: the
High-
landers of
Turkey.

Two main
divisions of
Albanian
race :
Tosks and
Gheggas.

138

ALBANIAN CHARACTERISTICS AND AFFINITIES.

LETTER
XIII.

Tosks and
Gheggas.

Greek and
Montene-
grin

leanings of
rival
Albanian
clans.

of Tosks. The Gheggas, though to myself, coming from
the Slavonic regions beyond them, they appeared very
unslavonic in their characteristics — more lively, more
masterful, and haughty — ^are described by travellers who
are well acquainted with Tosks as less energetic and
keen-witted than their southern relatives, and as more
approaching the Slavs in temperament and manners.
Certainly the Gheggas have in the course of their history
had a large intermixture of Slavic blood, both Serb and
Bulgarian, and I found that the Serbian language was
intelligible to many at Durazzo, while at Antivari and
elsewhere it is spoken by a large part of the population.
The Tosks, on the other hand, have had at different
times a large Greek intermixture, and it is a significant
fact that in certain localities in their area the ancient
Hellenic type of beauty (some approaches to which I
noticed among the Gheggas), which has vanished else-
where, survives in its full perfection. To this Hellenic
intermixture is probably due the superior keenness of
the Tosk intellect.

Thus it is that by their special characteristics and
antecedents the two great divisions of the Albanian race,
each jealous of the other, turn their eyes in different
directions. The independent spirits among the Gheggas
seek allies among the Slavs, the Tosk and Epirote mal-
contents turn to the Greek kingdom. The Christian
hill tribes of North Albania, the Clementi, Miridites, and
others who have never conceded more than a vague
suzerainty to the Porte, are at the present moment in
the closest relation with Montenegro ; indeed, if the
report current among the Albanians is to be relied on,
the Miridite Prince (or 'Prink,* as he styles himself;
most words for civilized ideas having been borrowed

POSSIBILITIES OF ITALIAN PROTECTORATE.

139

from their Roman conquerors by the Illyrian forefathers
of the Albanians) — Prink Bibedoda^ a young man of
about twenty-three, has recently concluded a negotiation
of eventual marriage with one of the little daughters of
Nicholas of Montenegro. So, while the clans both in
North and South Albania bide their time, the Miridites
and Clementi wait for a signal from the Montenegrin
camp; the Epirotes are at the beck of the Greek
committees.

And Italy? What is the meaning of an Italian trans-
port taking soundings in the harbour of Durazzo, flitting
from Durazzo to Antivari, from Antivari to Valona,
scattering rumours of the approach of the Italian fleet ?
What is the meaning of solemn warnings addressed to
little Montenegro against a too adventurous policy on the
Albanian side ? It is true that in the towns of the Alba-
nian littoral Italian is the language of civilized intercom-
munication ; it is true that Albanian colonies exist in
Southern Italy and Sicily, and that particularly close
relations have always subsisted between the Catholic
Albanians and their co-religionists on the other side of the
Adriatic. Yet until some fiirther development takes place
there is no real need to assume that the Roman Cabinet has
any other object than the protection of co-religionists and
what small commercial interests Italy still possesses on this
coast. It must, however, always be borne in mind that for
this reason alone anarchy in Albania may render at least
a temporary Italian protectorate indispensable ; nor can
it be denied that the recent * observations ' of their neigh-
bours have created a belief among Adriatic populations
beyond the borders of Albania that Italy, being notoriously '
weak in harbours on her Eastern coasts, and possessing
none, indeed, between Ancona and Brindisi, covets the

LETTER
XIII.

Recent
Italian * ob-
servations '
on Alba-
nian coast.

Possibili-
ties of an
Italian
Protec-
torate.

140

THE POSSIBLE FUTURE OF DURAZZO.

LETTER
XIII.

Durazzo a
bone of
contention
between
Italy and
Austria.

Durazzo a
natural
outlet of
Macedonia
on the West.

Pessimist
views of
Turkish
employis as
to situation
in Albania.

Eastern key of the Adriatic, and would make use of any
favourable opportunity to seize Durazzo. Perhaps the
best security against such a step is to be found in the
determined opposition of Austria, which, even in the
event of Bosnian annexation, would hardly be inclined to
grant Italy compensations on the side of Albania, much
less to place such an important naval station as Durazzo
in the hands of her Adriatic rival. Nor, on the whole, is
an Italian occupation of Durazzo to be desired in the
general interests of the Balkan peninsula. Durazzo be-
longs by nature to whoever rules in Macedonia — it is the
natural western outlet for the commerce of those midland
regions. If this generation lives to see the revival of the
industrious Bulgarian nationality on both sides of the
Balkan, there can be little doubt that it will also see
Durazzo and Salonica dependencies of the Crowned
Lion.

Meanwhile the Turkish employh^ with whom I con-
versed here and at Antivari, took a most pessimist view
of the situation from the Ottoman point of view, and
their apprehensions were borne out by the opinions of
European residents. They did not conceal their behef
that the fate of Albania was being decided on the
Danube, that a great Russian victory might kindle the
flames of revolt from end to end of the province. They
admitted that the reported subjugation of the Miridites,
in spite of the influence which the Romish propaganda
exercised on behalf of the Turk, was a mere sham ; that
the Miridites had but retired to the more inaccessible
peaks of their own mountains to choose their own moment
for taking action j that 20,000 armed Clementi were
biding their time ; that in Epirus, or South Albania,
especially the districts of Suli and Zagori, the Greeks and

DISAFFECTION OF NATIVE MAHOMETANS.

141

allied Albanian clans were expected to rise any day.
Sixteen thousand men are said to have been already well
supplied with arms on that side by the Greek committees,
and the inhabitants pay besides a war tax of from four to
ten piastres a house to a secret government of their own.

But the greatest anxiety of the Osmanli officials in
Albania is the uncertain reliance to be placed on the
native Mahometans.

Albania is like Bosnia in this respect, that the Maho-
metan population is Turkish neither in race, language,
nor sympathies. Here, too, there exists still a half-feudal
aristocracy, and each of the Albanian Begs has his clan-
nish following of true-believers, and resembles a High-
land chieftain of a century or so back. The clan organ-
ization is far more developed than in Bosnia, and the
Begs are proportionately more powerful. But what
chiefly distinguishes Albania from other provinces lies in
the peculiar characteristics of the race. By nature quick,
energetic^ intolerant of control, sceptical, and fickle, the
Skipetar, unlike the Slav, has ever made freedom all in
all, and religion a question of secondary importance.
* Religion goes with the sword ' is an Albanian proverb ;
and whenever his profession of faith stands in the way of
his interests your true Arnaout does not hesitate, at least
outwardly, to conform to a more convenient creed. Thus
about Prisrend and elsewhere there are thousands of
Roman Catholics (Crypto-Catholics they are called) who
made a public profession of Islamism to avoid the vexa-
tions to which as rayahs they were subjected. An Alba-
nian will attend a mosque at noon and a church at night
with the greatest sangfroid. The memory of Skanderbeg
— the last and mightiest champion of Christian Albania
against the Turks — is treasured by the Mahometans of

LETTER
XIII.

Prepara-
tions of
Greek com-
mittees for
revolt in
Epirus.

Anxiety of
Turks as to
attitude of
native Ma-
hometans.

142

MAHOMETAN DISAFFECTION AGAINST TURKS,

LETTER
XIII.

Revolt of
Maho-
metan
Albanians
against the
conscrip-
tion.

the province with a fanatical devotion which strangely
contrasts with the cold respect they vouchsafe to the
founder of their faith. The subtle genius of the Albanian
knows how to put forward religion as a pretext, but his
own interest has ever been the mainspring of his action.
The Turks have reason not to place reliance on the
fidelity of such a race, and grave fears are excited at
Durazzo by the result of an attempt of the Turkish
authorities to call out the Mustafiz, the militia or * Land-
sturm/ an alias for the Bashi-bazouks. I saw a few
gangs of them defiling through the streets to receive new
breechloaders in place of antiquated flintlocks ; but in
some of the neighbouring hill districts the Mahometan
villagers have taken to the mountains to avoid the con-
scription, and are burning and plundering the villages of
their neighbours, chiefly Mahometans, with great zest.
What will be the effect on the Albanian * true-believers '
of a complete triumph of the Russian arms, of a Greek
declaration of war, a general revolt of the Christian hill
tribes from the Black Mountain to those mysterious pre-
cincts of Dodona where the 2^us of once-free Hellas is
preparing even now to speak in tones of thunder? The
Turks may rely that Kismet is inscrutable ; but mean-
time this much is certain, that in Albania 'nothing
succeeds like success.'

LETTER XIV.

THE REIGN OF TERROR IN BOSNIA.

Arrival of fresh fugitives from Turkish Bosnia. My expedition to visit
them. JCamen, their glen of refuge. Fearful mortality amongst the
fugitives. Austrian shortcomings. Perishing children. Extraordi-
nary quickness of Bosnian and Herzegovinian children in Misslrby's
and Ragusan Committee's schools. ' The Slavonic dawn.' The latest
victims of the Turk. Cause of the fresh exodus. Results of Mr.
Consul Holmes' exhortations to the Vali. Mahometan ' order.' Exa-
mination of the victims. Twenty-six villagers driven of to Turkish
dungeons and never heard of since. Secret assassination of Christian
prisoners in the dungeons of Derbend. Thirteen peasants m^sscLcred
at Stekerovatz. Two relics of tyranny. The ' Nadjak ' of the
' Bosnian Begs and its uses. An instance of atrocious oppression.

Spalato, Dalmatia : July 9.

FRESH colony of Bosnian refugees having
sought shelter in a lonely mountain glen just on
the other side of the Bosnian frontier, to the
east of Knin, I have made an expedition to the
spot. My object was partly to aid in the distribution of
relief for Miss Irby and Miss Johnston's fund, partly to
gain particulars of recent Turkish barbarities that had
been continually swelling the number of Christian fugi-
tives at this and other points.

Leaving Knin and its fertile valley, after a terrible
journey under an almost tropical sun across a desert
waste of naked limestone ranges—a journey the effects of

LETTER
XIV.

Expedition
to visit
fresh fugi-
tives.

144

THE GLEN OF REFUGE,

LETTER
XIV.

The glen of
refuge.

A misera-
ble scene.

which have considerably delayed this letter — I arrived at
the Bosnian border, in company with an intelligent and
kind-hearted gendarme of the Austrian frontier service,
who has been invaluable to Miss Irby in the distribution
of relief in the more remote districts.

Certainly in their choice of a place of refuge the fugi-
tives had left nothing to be desired. The prospect that
opened before me on surmounting the last rocky summit
that concealed the glen of Kamen (so this spot is called)
could hardly be surpassed in picturesque and romantic
beauty. Imagine, ^fter spending hour after hour in toil-
ing over the monotonous steeps of a wilderness of white
disintegrated rock that seemed to redouble the pitiless
glare of the sun above, coming upon a fresh green oasis,
a beautiful gorge overgrown with fine beech trees, fi-om
amidst whose verdure, and partly clothed by it, started
up endless peaks and towers and pinnacles of what from
a remote point of vision might have been mistaken for
the ruins of some quaint Diireresque stronghold of the
Middle Ages, but which was, indeed, nothing but a rock
citadel of Nature.

In the shade of the trees in the green glen below, the
refugees had put together the wretched little wood shan-
ties that served them for shelter against the elements ;
and here in miserable groups, as we approached each
homestead, the various households clustered around us to
receive our alms. English help has been reaching them
now for some weeks, but their sufferings have been fiight-
ful. Here and there beneath the trees, with no doctors
to attend them, with no bed to lie on but the kindly
bosom of mother earth, lay victims of hunger, typhus,
and small-pox, from which latter disease there had been
one death that day.

THE RESPONSIBILITY OF AUSTRIA.

\h5

— >r

-r

LETTER
XIV.

Terrible
mortality
nmong
refugees.

Since the end of winter the mortality in this wood has
been terrible. In this little colony over loo have died in
the last six months ; about 40 per cent of the whole
number.

Remember that there are or were in all about a
quarter of a million Bosnian refugees, and the full signifi-
cance of these figures can be faintly realised. Doubtless
the mortality has not been everywhere so great as here ;
but it seems to me that Christian Europe has accumulated
a terrible responsibility by turning the cold shoulder to
these helpless suppliants. The Austrian Government has
given some relief, but fitfully and partially, by the hands,
in many cases, of corrupt agents, and not enough to keep
the bulk of the refugees even above ground. Once it
gave them about twopence a day ; now it gives them on
an average about a halfpenny, bidding the able-bodied
find emplo)rment. Employment in the Dinaric Alps,
where the natives themselves scarce glean subsistence?
Employment in the lUyrian Desert ! When the whole
dolefiil statistics come to be known — and known they will
be, in spite of the efforts of the Austrian and Magyar
authorities to suppress publicity — it will be found that
Austro-Hungary has accumulated a weight of moral re-
sponsibility which I suppose no other Government in
Europe could support. But Austro-Hungary, happily or
imhappily for herself, is at present but a * geographical
expression,* unencumbered either with a national heart or
a national conscience. It would, indeed, be unjust to
deny that to provide for the multitude of the refugees
must have caused a severe strain on the slender finances
of the Empire ; but what would be thought of an English
Minister who should allow some 30,000 destitute ftigitives

146

THE REFUGEE CffllDRE.V,

LETTER
XIV.

The refugee
children.

to Starve to death on English soil rather than face a deficit
in the Budget?

It was sad to see the children here ; it was sad to
contrast these jaundiced hollow cheeks, from which the
roses had faded in the very April of their years — these
slender lean-ribbed frames, frail as little cockle-shells—
with the chubby-faced lads and lasses to be seen among
the more fortunate Herzegovinian refugees who have
sought refuge at Ragusa, and have hardly known what it
is to want But death has been very busy among the
children here at Kamen. Among those that siurive, the
misery of weeks has imprinted on too many of their
wizened little faces the furrows of long years. Bread has
come to them at last, the icy Bora has ceased to blow,
and the cold of an Alpine winter has given place to
summer heats ; but it was not hard to see that no return-
ing sunshine could ever open those withered buds — they
await the pitiful hand of Death to pluck them off.

For them relief has come too late — but not for all.
There are many stubborn little constitutions even here
that are doing credit to the relief sent by the English
ladies. On the whole it is siurprising that there are so
many of the small folk still flourishing, and it is curious
what fine children there are among the refugees generally.
In them lies the only hope of this down-trodden race.
They alone are not as yet degraded by the brand of op-
pression. This fact must be thoroughly realised : the
present generation of Bosnian rayahs is past reclaiming ;
the children alone are still plastic, and by them alone can
one hope to elevate the race. There is nothing, indeed,
that Miss Irby has more consistently aimed at in her
system of relief than to educate as well as feed the
children. She has now established no less than twenty-

CHILDREN OF THE DAWN.

\ 147

one schools, and the Ragusa Committee has an additional
seven. Nor can anything be more remarkable than the
ability and real thirst for acquiring knowledge which these
refugee children display. Their aptitude is continually
startling teachers accustomed to instruct Dalmatian and
other children, and, indeed, any one who is present at
their lessons or examinations. I may mention that not
long ago, being anxious to counteract the too clerical
instruction in vogue in the Ragusan refugee schools, I
procured as reading books some hundred popular his-
tories of the Serbs, and now there is scarcely a small
Herzegovinian there who cannot pass a creditable exami-
nation in the history of the national heroes and of the
ancient Serbian Czardom.

And for what ages has the mental soil of these down-
trodden Bosnians lain fallow ! These long-neglected Slavs
come fresh to their books after centuries of rayless igno-
rance ; and, as to one first emerging on the light of day
from one of their own Ill)n-ian caverns, all objects are
more brilliant to their mental vision.

'The Germans,' according to the Bohemian poet,
* have reached their day, the English their midday, the
French their afternoon, the Italians their evening, the
Spaniards their night — but the Slavs stand on the thresh-
old of the morning.' Yet an Englishman may retort that
a new dawn is perpetually breaking on his race in the
backwoods of the world.

But I am strapng from this Bosnian forest

Further on in the wood I came upon some still more
lamentable groups. These were the fresh arrivals, the
latest victims of the Turk. Women and children lay
about or leant against the trees, quite worn out by their
recent flight. They had now nothing, absolutely nothing,

LETTER
XIV.

Quickness
of refugee
children.

The latest
victims of
the Turk,

I. 2

I4S

EFFECTS OF MR, HOLMES' * URGING THE VALV

LETTER
XIV.

Some effecti
of Mr.
Holmes*
' urging thi

vau:

but the rags upon their backs, and for food were thrown
upon the charity of their miserable fellow-exiles. I wish
Mr. Consul Holmes had been at my side to learn the
cause of their flight. The world is perhaps by this time
aware, for Mr. Holmes has published tiie fact in his
despatches, how the English representative in Bosnia
pressed the Turkish governor of the province to drive out
the Christian bands who still presumed to protect their
hearths and homes in Southern Bosnia. The Vali, it
appears, yielded to the pressing solicitations of a consul
more actively Tiurkish than the Turks themselves, and
let loose his dogs of war in this direction.

On the approach of large numbers of Turkish troops,
Despotovid, as I have already informed you, withdrew
his bands from the more outlying districts of what I have
described as * Free Bosnia,* and concentrated his forces
at Czemi Potuk.

The valiant forces of the Vali, however, have not
attempted to storm these positions. The withdrawal of
the insurgent garrisons left a considerable number of
Christian villages, hitherto protected from the destroyer,
at the mercy of the Turks ; and the brave men des-
patched at Mr. Holmes's request (and now, as we know
from Mr. Bourke, with the full approval of the present
Government) to restore Mahometan 'order' and to stamp
out this Christian * brigandage,' as our consul perpetually
called it, till forced to eat his words by his own vice-consul,
have diverted their energies from attacking armed men in
their mountain strongholds to the more easy and congenial
task of burning defenceless villages, trampling under
foot or carrying off the seed com with which the humane
zeal of the English ladies had supplied the starving
peasantry, cutting down unarmed villagers, and outraging

MAHOMETAN 'ORDER:

149

the girls and women. I have already informed you by
telegraph of the fate of the villages of the Unnatz Valley ;
I have already touched on the worst of the outrages ;
and the terrible evidence collected by Miss Irby on the
harrying of this part of *Free Bosnia' lies before the
English public.^ I have now to record that these Turkish
hordes have changed their venue to the South and West
of this first desolated region.

I examined the freshly arrived refugees that I met
with in different parts of the wood of Kamen as to th» <
cause of their flight, and the accounts I received tallied
even to the names of the victims. About eight days
before, the Turks had first appeared in the district indi-
cated by the villages of Stekerovatz, Otkovatz, Czerni-
verch, and Cerdid. This region, according to information
of my own received before any of the outrages took
place, had been evacuated, weeks before, by the troops
of Colonel Despotovid, and the refugees were unanimous
in stating that there was no insurgent in the neighbour-
hood when the Turks came.

But the fact that the villagers were .rayahs — that they
had once held allegiance to the insurgent commanders —
was quite sufficient to provoke the Turkish hordes who
appeared among them only ten days ago to a savage
revenge. Cottages were burnt, the usual outrages took
place, cattle were driven off, and after murdering five
individuals, including a village elder, the Turks collected
twenty-six villagers, * house-fathers ' and others, threw

LETTER

The recent
outrages.

* The outrages here referred to
were subsequent to those already
described at O^ievo, &c. , and took
place soon after Mr. Vice-Consul
Freeman had completed his inves-

tigation as to these earlier barbari-
ties. On p. 90 will be found an
account, from Miss Irby's pen, of
the fate of some of the girls and
women.

ISO

KA YAHS DRIVEN INTO CAPTIVITY.

LETTER
XIV.

Rayahs
driven off hy
the Turks
and mur-
dered in
prison.

Massacre
atDerbend.

Massacre
at Stekero-
vaiz.

them into irons, and drove them off like a herd of cattle
in the direction of Travnik. Nothing has since been
heard of them.

This driving off of captives is perhaps the most
terrible featm^e in the present Reign of Terror in Bosnia.
Rarely indeed do men so driven oflf return to their
homes. Many sink under the fatigues of the march
alone, and the cruelties perpetrated on them by their
armed ca|)tors surpass belief. Those who arrive at their
d8$tination are thrown into Turkish prisons, and are
thefe subjected to the visits of Mahometan fanatics,
who mutilate them with their sword-knives. Many are
starved to death, and others, as the unfortunate refugee
captives who were recently driven to the dungeons of
Derbend, are assassinated outright I have already tele-
graphed that I am in a position to give the names of
thirteen rayahs so assassinated at Derbend, and the total
number of the returning refugees who on that occasion
met a similar fate is estimated by a correspondent of the
Vienna * Tagespresse ' at not less than sixty. Nor is the
account I have given of the treatment to which the human
herds driven oflf by the Bashi-bazouks are subjected at
all imaginary. A terrible and circumstantial relation has
lately appeared in the * Politik ' of Prag, communicated
by an Austrian who had joined the insurgent ranks in
Bosnia and had been captured by the Turks, which
shows that there is nothing in the horrors of mediaeval
dungeons that is not reproduced at the present day in
the Turkish prisons of Bosnia.

Glutted for the moment with vengeance and plunder,
the Turkish troops left this district for a while ; but two
days before my visit to Kamen they had returned, and a
ferocious act of savagery which they perpetrated on their

MASSACRE AT STEKEROVATZ,

151

arrival at the village of Stekerovatz had driven the Chris-
tian inhabitants who still remained in the district to seek
refuge by flight

The Turks on their arrival in the village collected
thirteen of the villagers — peasants, perfectly unarmed,
who had never joined the insurrection, — and, falling on
them then and there (driving them off to a more lingering
fate was, it seems, this time too much trouble), shot some
and butchered the rest with their * handjars/

About this atrocious massacre there is no room for
doubt I have the details from a variety of witnesses —
from men who escaped from the scene of the outrages,
and from two witnesses who after the departure of the
Turks buried some of the mutilated remains.

The Turks, after plundering the village, carried off the
heads of the victims with their loot in the direction of
GlamoS. Of the murdered I have the names of Marko
Serdi<5, Vaso Berberovi<5, Mili Cegora, three brothers of
the name of Peskegovi<5, Mihail and Nikolo Bosniak,
Marko Travas, Simo Diurman, and Jovo BoSniak.

I cannot close this ghastly chronicle without the
mention of two relics of the normal state of things in
Bosnia in the period immediately preceding the present
uprising. One of them is an implement, the other a
victim of the feudal tyranny of the Mahometan Begs.

I have lately held in my hand an instrument the use
of which might well excite the curiosity of a spectator.
It is like a heavy hammer, but the pointed extremity is
shaped like a beak or claw of iron. With one end you
might fell an ox; with the other you might dig three
inches into the trunk of an oak tree. This mysterious
and deadly weapon is called a * nadjak * ; and its use is
only too well known to the Bosnian rayah. The * nadjak '

LfilTER
XIV.

Relics of
tyranny.

* nad-

jdk ' and its

rfVO RELICS OF TYRANNY.

LETTER
XIV.

Story of a

Bosnian

serf.

is the inseparable companion^ of the worst of the Bosnian
Begs when he goes among his Christian serfs, and woe to
the man who on such occasions shall fail to satisfy his
worst behests. With a blow from this terrible instrument
he can brain his victim or tear his flesh ; he can murder
outright, or maim for life, or simply inflict severe bodily
pain. I am happy to be able to record that this * nadjak '
IS at present only used by the worst of the Mahometan
landlords. Used, however, it still is. That under notice
was taken by the insurgents from the country-house of a
neighbouring Beg — if I mistake nqt, a member of the
Kulenoyid family. The iron of its material is most
artistically inlaid with silver ; among the ruling caste in
Bosnia refined taste can coexist with refined cruelty.

The other relic that I spoke of is a living monument
of the ferocious tyranny which provoked the present
outbreak. A short time since I saw among the Bosnian
refugees at PI061, in Croatia, an aged cripple, and heard
the story of his wrongs. A few years ago there was no
more hale old man near Stari Maidan than Lazar Czemi-
markovic. He was then the house-father of a family
community which, owing to its superior industry, was
better off" than the other rayah households of the neigh-
bourhood. But the mere fact that he was comparatively
well-to-do marked him out for the special extortion of his
Mahometan landlord, who, suspecting that his serf might
have some hidden hoard, made an exorbitant demand
for a hundred ducats. The poor man was at his wits'
end ; he brought out all the little savings of his lifetime,
which did not, I believe, amount to a fifth of the sum
demanded. But the Beg would not be satisfied. As old
Lazar persisted in his assertion that he had nothing more,
the Beg had recourse to the bastinado. The aged house-

THE STORY OF A BOSNIAN SERF.

153

father received a hundred strokes, but this did not add
to his ability to pay. He was beaten again more horribly
than before, and left almost inanimate. He was then
buried up to his neck in dung and left three days, the
Beg giving orders to his apparitors to strangle the wretched
man if at the end of that period he should be found alive
and still refused to pay. Meanwhile the friends and
relatives of the victim collected among them a sum
sufficient to buy off the Beg. Lazar Czemimarkovid was
dug out, and lives still, a wreck of his former self. Even
when I saw him he .could scarcely hobble with a staff,
and his toeless stumps bore witness to the pitiless rigour
of his torturers.

LETTER

XIV.

A SHORT REVIEW OF THE WAR IN MONTENEGRO

From the expiratian of the armistice and the triple iitvaiioit tf If"
PrindpalUy to Ike final eiiacualuin of Ike Mentettegrin mil If
the Turkish armies.

Just after the enpiration of the armistice, Prince Nikola of Mon-
tenegro was walking with a Russian officer in the high strecl of
ihe small capital, when a convoy of stores that had been landed »s
usual from a Russian vessel in the Austrian part of Cattaro bap-
pened to pass by, ' Voili I ' exclaimed the Prince, 'nous avons
de la poudre et des grains, c'est tout ce qu'il nous faut. Vons
veirei maimenant comment nous les rosscrons ! Nous les laisserons
entrer dans notre pays ; mala c'est alors 1^ que nous les battetons.'

This remark quite truly foreshadowed the defensive strategy
adhered lo by the Montenegrins throughout the earlier part of tbe
present campaign. The Montenegrins contented themselves ^

THE WAR IN MONTENEGRO.

155

assuming a defensive attitude on their own frontiers and the parts
of Herzegovina in their possession/ and M'ith endeavouring to
blockade NikSid and the Duga forts — the islands of Turkish
territory within their limits. Thus the armistice was practically
prolonged till the beginning of June.

After a strange amount of hesitation, marching, and counter-
Jiarching, the details of which I need not repeat here, the simul-
taneous attack of the Turkish forces in Albania, Rascia, and
Herzegovina on Montenegro and her insurgent allies was planned
for June 4.

Suleiman Pasha, breaking up his camp at Blagai, near the
Herzegovinian capital, had marched vid NeveSinje and Stolatz, to
Gatzko, where the 16,000 or 18,000 men he had with him effected
a junction with twenty-eight battalions — some 14,000 and more —
from the side of Sienitza and Priepolje.

On the other hand, Ali Saib Pasha, in Albania, had pushed
forward the forces still about Skutari to the neighbourhood of
Podgoritza and Spuz. It appears that the number of regulars and
irregulars under his command had seriously diminished during the
last few weeks, owing to the general demoralization and the
unwillingness of the Albanian Bashi-bazouks, originally estimated
at not less than 32,000, to fight. Thus, regulars and irregulars
together, the Montenegrins do not estimate their enemies on the
Albanian side at over 30,000. From the side of Rascia or the
Pashalic of Novipazar Mehemet Ali, using Kola^ine as his base,
directed a third attack of his forces, inclusive of a large number of
Albanian Bashi-bazouks, amounting certainly to over 20,000 men.

Thus, no less than 82,000 men were hurled simultaneously
against a small Principality, whose total population, men, women,
and children included, does not number 200,000 souls. The
motive of the Turks, in diverting such large forces at the critical
moment on the Danube, to what must seem to all observers to
have been a comparatively trifling issue, is partly explained by the
fact that in striking what they hoped would prove a death-blow at
Montenegro, they were also aiming at the heart of disaffection and
revolt in Bosnia, Albania, Macedonia, and, in fact, their whole
Western provinces, by which they might also paralyse the possible
action of Greece.

The two points against which the Turks directed their main

THE WAR
IN MONTE-
NEGRO.

Triple in-
vasion of
the Princi-
pality by
the Turks.

156

THE WAR IN MONTENEGRO,

THE WAR
IN MONTE-
NEGRO.

Defeat of
Turks on
Albanian
side.

Battle of
Kristatz.

attack were, on the side of Albania, the valley of the Zeta— the
object of the Turks being, as was stated very openly in the camp at
Skutari, to capture Danilovgrad, the late-erected Montenegrin town,
which the Principality looks on as its future capital — while on the
Herzegovinian side the purpose was to force the passage of the
Duga Pass and relieve NikSid, which the Monten^rins held in
strict blockade.

The offensive movement against these several points was carried
out as planned — simultaneously, the attack on the Albanian side
being slightly the earliest. On this side the Montenegrin southern
army, numbering perhaps 8,000, was very strongly posted on the
heights of Majlat and Martinidi, under the command of Bozidar
Petrovid. The Monten^irins, true to the defensive strategy resolved
on from the beginning, awaited the Turks in their intrenchments,
and simply mowed down their ranks when they attempted to
advance. The positions were indeed so strong that the whole
attack was little better than a useless waste of life on the part of
the Turkish commander, as can be gathered from the immense dis-
parity of the losses, the Montenegrin dead being no more than
18, while the Turks lost at least 500, and the triumphant moun-
taineers took over 1,000 rifles from their fallen and retreating foes.
The Turks were hurled back in confusion on Spu2, and did not for
the present attempt to renew their attack from this side.

On the side of Herzegovina the Turkish attack was more
serious in its extent, and its results. On Monday, while Ali Saib
was making his vain and ill-judged attack on the valley of the
Zeta, Suleiman Pasha from Gatzko pushed forward his vanguard
to assail the heights of Kristatz and Golia, which commanded the
northern entrance to the Duga Pass — his necessary avenue of
approach in undertaking the relief of NikSid. Although Kristatz
was the key to the whole mountain avenue, the commander of the
Montenegrin northern army, Vojvoda Vukotid, had only posted four
battalions at this critical point, and had so scattered the rest of his
forces, amounting collectively to less than half the attacking
Turkish army, that it was impossible that any support could be
given to the devoted four battalions at Kristatz.

These battalions, however, amounting to all accounts to no
more than 2, 100 men, hurled back the advancing columns down
the side of the hill, and while one half kept their positions to

THE WAR IN MONTENEGRO,

157

avoid a flank attack, the other pursued the Turks till the retreat
became a rout, and the rout an indiscriminate slaughter. No
quarter appears to have been given on either side. A Montenegrin
who had taken part in this fight told me that the pursuers were
excited to fury by finding three of their comrades who at an early
period of the day had fallen into the enemy's hands impaled, and
with fires lighted beneath their bodies. In some cases it appears
that the old barbarous practice of cutting off the noses of the
fallen slain was revived, but this seems rather to have been
perpetrated by the ruder Herzegovinian bands, who fought under
Socica, about Goransko.

The slaughter of the Turks on the rocky steeps between
Kristatz and Golia was described to me by eye-witnesses as
something awful. The pursuing battalions claim to have taken as
many as 1,900 rifles from the fallen ; the loss of the Turks
amounted to over 2,000 in this quarter. The headlong pursuit of
the Monten^;rins was, however, stopped by the advance of the
Turkish reserves, and seeing themselves in danger of being sur-
rounded, the pursuers in their turn were obliged to give ground
and fight their way back to their brothers on the height. The
Turks now made another attempt to storm the heights of Kristatz,
but were still continually repulsed, till, attacked in front and flank,
the brave defenders found it necessary to evacuate the contested
position, and retired, fighting, to more inaccessible localities in the
mountains. It was then found that they had lost in killed and
woimded a third of their number.

Meanwhile another Turkish division had been despatched to
re-provision the fort of Goransko, about five hours to the east of
Kristatz, which was held blockaded by Lazar Socica with two
Herzegovinian battalions and two battalions representing the clan
of Drobniaki. It is certain that the relief of Goransko was partially
accomplished ; but Socica next day effectually interrupted any
further provisionment by seizing in a gallant attack 700 horses laden
with stores, besides large quantities of arms.

Meanwhile in Cettinje it was known that Kristatz had been
taken and Goransko relieved, and that the Kristatz battalions had
lost from 600 to 700 in killed and wounded. But the next day,
and the day af^er, and the day after that passed, and still the Turks
made no attempt to advance on the Duga Pass ; the great losses

THE WAR

IN MONTK-

NEGRO.

Storming
ofKrisiatz^

158

THE WAR IN MONTENEGRO,

THE WAR

IN MONTE-
NEGRO.

Turkish
advance up
the Duga
Pass.

Relief of
Nikli^.

inflicted on them beeame known, and tidings began to pour in from
the towns of Herzegovina that the Bashi-bazouk auxiharies of
Suleiman Pasha were so disheartened by the slaughter of Kristatz
that they were deserting his camp by hundreds at a time— 500 as I
know appeared in a body in Trebinje alone on Thursday morning.
Then came news of successful skirmishes, of Lazar Socica's feat
near Goransko, of the repulse of a Turkish attack on the side of
KolaSine and another on the side of Kutchi, and the capture of
large quantities of guns and horses. Finally it appeared that the
main body of the Turks had fallen back on the camp of Gatzko.

Meantime Vukoti<5 employed the comparative lull in withdrawing
what battalions he had about the northern extremity of the Duga
Pass and uniting them with the bulk of the northern army about
Presieka, which position blocks the southern exit of the Duga and
the road by which the Turks must advance on NikSid The total
Montenegrin forces, the Herzegovinian allies included, collected at
thb point and at the neighbouring mountains, amounted, it is said,
to twenty-six battalions, or about 15,000 men. After a long delay
the Turkish advance through the Duga Pass commenced on Tues-
day, and on Thursday at daybreak the two armies found themselves
face to face, that of the Turks being at least two and a half times
greater than that of the Montenegrins under Vukotid Every one
at Cettinje was awaiting the news of a battle on a far larger scale
than any of the previous engagements.

On Saturday (June 15) the ominous news arrived in the little
capital of Montenegro that the Turks had, in fact, succeeded in
relieving NikSid on Thursday. The result was partly due to the
incapacity of Vukoti^ to combine his forces for a simultaneous
movement, but largely to the determination expressed by the
Prince, who was much moved at the losses suffered by the Kristatz
battalions, and is economical of nothing more than of the Uves of
his warriors, not to fight a battle except at such great advantage
as would secure small losses to the Montenegrins. Thus, after a
short engagement, in which the Montenegrin loss was about fifty,
the clans withdrew to the mountains and left the passage to Nikli^
open to the Turks.

It was now open to Suleiman Pasha, using Nik§i^ as a base, to
advance across the plain of the city, which runs at this point hke
a wedge into Montenegrin territory, and attempt to storm the

THE WAR IN MONTENEGRO,

159

breach in the mountain walls of the Principality, which at this
point forms a convenient avenue of approach to the Zeta valley.
The heights of Slivie here rise only 600 feet above the plain, and
these, to a great extent, owing to the want of united action among
the Montenegrin battalions, Suleiman Pasha succeeded in canying
after a desperate struggle, and subsequently the old monastery of
Ostrog, which the Turks reduced to ashes. On Sunday (June 17)
the Turks had forced an entrance into Montenegro. The Montenegrin
battalions were divided, and the Montenegrin commander Vukotid
completely lost his head ; yet the resistance had only begun. The
Turks were repulsed in an attempt to force the upper ford of the
Zeta, their retreat in the direction of NikSid was cut off, and
Suleiman Pasha, after nine days* combat, during which he advanced
a short day's march, barely succeeded in cutting his way out of the
Principality on the Albanian side. Weeks afterwards, on passing
over the same ground that the Turks had to contest inch by inch
with the stubborn mountaineers, I observed the relics of this
disastrous march — skeletons of horses l)dng about in every direc-
tion amidst the tangled brushwood, and bones choking the hollows
of the rocks.

The plan of the Turkish commanders had been for the two
armies of Suleiman Pasha and Ali Saib to penetrate simultaneously
into the Principality from the Herzegovinian and Albanian sides,
and, effecting a junction at Danilovgrad, to march on Cettinje and
annihilate Montenegro. And, difficult as was the advance of Sulei-
man Pasha, and serious the losses that he suffered, the plan might
yet have been carried into execution had it not been for the crushing
defeat inflicted on the Albanian army by the brave Boio Petrovid
On Saturday, June 16, simultaneously with the advance of Suleiman
from Niksi<5, Ali Saib moved forward a division of his forces
amounting to about 10,000 men from Spu2 and Podgoritza, and
attempted to storm the Montenegrin intrenchments held by Bo2o
Petrovid with no more than 2,500 men, a little to the south of
Danilovgrad. Four unsuccessful assaults were made, and at the
fourth repulse the Montenegrins leapt from their intrenchments, and,
falling *handjar' in hand on the retreating Turks, inflicted great
slaughter. The Turkish rout was increased by two fresh battalions
under Vojvoda Plamenatz dashing down upon their flank, and the
pursuit stopped only under the guns of Spuf. The Turkish loss in

THE WAR
IN MONTE-
NEGRO.

Storming
of the
heights of
Sltvie by
Suleiman
Pasha.

Disastrous
march of
Suleiman
Pasha
down Z^ta
Valley.

The nine
days fight.

Repulse of
Ali Saib by
BoSo
Petrovie,

i6o

THE WAR IN MONTENEGRO,

THE WAR
IN MONTE-
NEGRO.

Prince
Nikola
appeals to
Austria.

Brilliant

victory of

BoSo

PetrovU

aver

Albanian

army.

killed and wounded in this engagement was over i,ooo. Ali
Saib, however, on learning the successful issue of Suleiman's attempt
to force an entrance into the Zeta valley from the north, resolved on
a final effort to push his way up the valley fix>m the south, and join
hands with Suleiman's army at Danilovgrad. He accordingly
collected his whole forces, amounting, with irr^[ulars, to about
28,000 men ; and carrjring with him tents, arms, and provisions, as
for a prolonged occupation of Montenegro, commenced his march up
the Zeta valley.

It must be admitted that at this juncture a very gloomy view of
affairs was taken by the authorities in Montenegro, and I am in a
position to state that a confidential appeal was made by the Prince
Nikola to the Austrian Government to save the Principality from
such a catastrophe as a Turkish occupation of Cettinje. The
Austrian Government at once expressed its readiness to exercise its
good offices to save the Principality from annihilation, but the event
proved that diplomatic intervention was not needed.

On Wednesday, June 20, the attack of Ali Saib was met by the
Montenegrin battalions under Boio Petrovid and Plamenatz about
Martinidi : the Turks were taken in a trap by a fiank and rear
attack, and after a sanguinary engagement, were utterly routed ; the
tents and stores of provisions and ammunition which they had
brought with them with a view to the occupation of the Principality
fell into the hands of the Montenegrins, and witnesses described to
me the rout as a massacre. All the positions that the Turks had
held just within the Montenegrin border were evacuated, and the
Turkish camp abandoned to the mountaineers. The main loss was
suffered by the Nizam, the Albanian Bashi-bazouks escaping for the
most part over Mount Berdo. This brilliant victory prevented the
junction of the two Turkish armies at Danilovgrad. Ali Saib's
troops were completely demoralized, and henceforth ceased to form
a serious factor in the issue. It was only after Suleiman, harassed
on both flanks and the rear by the Prince's artillery on the right
bank of the Zeta, and the scattered battalions of the Monten^n
northern army, had succeeded in passing Danilovgrad on the
opposite shore of the river, and had actually approached the
Albanian frontier, that Ali Saib was able to hold out a feeble hand
to aid his retreat on to Turkish soil. After nine days' prolonged
combat, during which he is stated to have lost no less than

THE WAR IN MONTENEGRO,

i6i

6,cxx> men in killed alone,— though, considering the difficulty of
arriving at an exact estimate of losses in mountain warfare, the
statement must be received with reserve — Suleiman Pasha succeeded
in entering the Albanian town of Podgoritza with the remains of
the finest army that the Turks had in the field. To this must be
added the losses of All Saib's army, which can hardly be set down
at less than four thousand killed and wounded. ,

Meanwhile, Mehemet Ali, who with the third Turkish invading
army had been devastating the mountain cantons bf north- eastern
Montenegro, finding his army reduced by the disappearance of the
Albanian Bashi bazouks who had returned home with their plunder,
and having suffered a check from the brave inhabitants of the
Morafa, retired to Kola^ine.

Thus by Thursday, June 28, the first chapter of the Montenegrin
war of this year, including the Turkish invasion of the Principality,
ended with the entire evacuation of Montenegrin territory ; and on
the 15th of July, Suleiman Pasha embarked from Antivari with
forty battalions to transfer his operations to the Balkan.

The second period in the Montenegrin war is marked by the
siege of NikSid, prolonged in a desultory way from the end of July
to September 8, when the capitulation took place ; of which and
the short but decisive campaign in the Herzegovina, I shall speak
more at length.

The following letter which I wrote from Cettinje on the 3rd of
September, a few days before the fall of NikSid^ may throw some light
on the policy of the Montenegrin Government during this period of
the war, marked by the protracted siege of NikSid The complete
triumph of the Russians afterwards gave a more active turn to the
military operations of Montenegro, both on the side of Old Serbia
and of Albania : —

*The Montenegrins are a ** canny" people. No one can under-
stand the policy of the Principality without first grasping this
prominent trait in the national character. Brave even to temerity
in action, they are shrewd even to over-cautiousness in the council
chamber. Four hundred years* incessant struggle with a mighty
empire has taught them to economise their national resources in the
same remarkable manner in which the ceaseless struggle for bare
existence in their mountain wilderness has taught them to husband
their domestic. For centuries Nature and the Turk have been

THE WAR
IN MONTE-
NEGRO.

Firstperiod
of the war
concluded.

Policy of
the Monte-
negrins
during the
siege of
NiksiC,

1 62

THE WAR IN MONTENEGRO.

THE WAR
IN MONTE-
NEGRO.

A letter on
Montene-
grin policy
during the
siege of

Nime.

drumming into them the same stem lesson. Nor is it any secret
that their present ruler carries these national tendencies to a fiuilt.
It was, as I have already intimated, the natural but exces^ve desire
of Prince Nikola to spare the lives of his people which prevented
the Montenegrins from offering the resistance they might have done
to the Turkish army in the Duga Pass, and that resulted not only in
Suleiman Pasha's relieving NikSid, but in forcing a passage into the
heart of Czemagora itsel£ It is precisely the same cause that is
now retarding the capture of NikSid, which might have been taken
over and over again if the Prince would only have given his consent
to an assault. But though the fighting force of the garrison cannot
number more than two thousand men, of whom only one half are
r^^ulars and the other half but armed citizens, the assault has been
countermanded and delayed even when all the forts environing the
town were in the hands of the Montenegrins, and although the
recent capture of Fort Chadelitza puts them in actual possession of
part of the suburbs.

' The humane and quite intelligible desire of the Prince, with
the hospitals of his little Principality already overflowing with
wounded, to spare the lives of his brave retainers, has doubtless very
largely contributed to this procrastinating generalship ; but I may
state that this is by no means the only reason that has weighed with
him in preferring the slow and uncertain reduction by blockade to a
speedier and more sanguinary method. To put it briefly, the siege
of NikSid has been usdful to Monten^^ro. The political caution of
the Prince makes him averse to attempting too great things with his
small means. He perceives, or thinks he perceives, that little that
Montenegro can at present do, will have any great influence in
making the ultimate re-adjustment of her frontiers more favourable.

* The great service has been performed. Sixty thousand Turkish
r^ulars, who might have turned the scale against Russia at Sinmitza,
were drawn off fix>m taking part in the Danubian operations at the
critical moment. Russia has already contracted her debt of honour
to the Principality. Whether the present war be terminated ia one
or more can^iaigns, few military critics doubt that Russia will issue
victorious from the contest, and Montenegrin statesmen may have
the best reasons for knowing that when the day of reckoning comes
neither the brave men who died at Kristatz nor the Turkish ravages
in the Zeta valley and the Mora&i will be forgotten by the Czar.

THE- WAR IN MONTENEGRO.

163

< This being the case, the Prince and his advisers might well ask
themselves what need there was for a too adventurous strat^y be-
yond the borders of the Principality. The Mrithdrawal oif the
greater part of the Turkish troops seemed, indeed, to offer a
splendid field for Montenegrin ambition. Both at Mostar and
Skutari, the Turks— Herzegovinian as well as Albanian — expected
to see a Montenegrin army at their gates. But the discreet ruler
of Montenegro perceived Italian susceptibilities in Albania and
Austrian in Herzegovina, and forbore to. threaten either Mostar or
Skutari. It is true that neither of these objections applied to an
invasion of ** Old " Serbia. On that side, indeed, the temptation
to advance seemed irresistible. On that side these indomitable
highlanders, who alone of all their race have preserved the con-
tinuity of Serbian independence, look down from their mountain
fastnesses upon Ipek, the ancient seat of their national metro-
politans, and far away at the other extremity of the rich valley of
the Drin may catch a glimpse of the minarets of Prisrend, the
cradle of the national dynasty, the Czarigrad of Serbian Emperors.
There is no Montenegrin-^there is hardly a Croat or Dalmatian —
who has lost the hope of liberating this sacred land fh>m the infidel
yoke. It was only to be expected that great influence should be
brought to bear to induce the Prince to order an advance in this
direction.

' But no advance h^ been made on the side of Stara Serbia.
The Prince and his advisers know too well that the broad plains of
the Drin are no place in which to hazard his heroic mountaineers.
Brave as they are among their native rocks, their tactics are little
fitted for the open. Even were they possessed of bayonets (which
they are not), they would disdain to form a square. They would be
trampled down like a field of standing com by the first chaise of
cavalry. And even were it not for these obvious military considera-
tions, it may be taken for granted that so far as Prisrend is con-
cerned the susceptibilities of the Serbian Government, which looks
on that city as a birthright of the Danubian principality, will be
respected at Cettinje. I believe that the most perfect understanding
exists between Serbia and Montenegro on the subject of '* Old "
Serbia in case of the eventualities of annexation, and that Bdgrade
would see with equal equanimity the Montenegrin lion set its paw
on Ipek and Diakova.

M a

THE WAK
IN MONTE-
NEGRO.

Montene-
grin policy.

1 64

THE WAR m MONTENEGRO.

THE WAR
IN MONTE-
NEGRO.

fitter on
the policy of
the Prince's
Govern-
ment.

Montenegro
and Stara
Serbia.

* Meanwhile there is a general and well-founded conviction that
in any re-settlement of the Balkan Peninsula consequent on a
Russian triumph, this small historic strip of country, Stara or ** Old"
Serbia, will not be neglected. My readers will look for it in vain
in their maps, where it lurks divided and concealed by portions of the
Bosnian and Albanian pashaliks of Novi Pazar and Prisrend. Pro-
bably its very existence is hardly known to English statesmen. But
Knglishmen may rest assured that neither the fate of Bulgaria nor
Bosnia nor Herzegovina is so dear to the Slavs — and to the Russians
as well as those of the South — as that ^f this ancient cradle of the
Serbian Empire, this desecrated shrine of the Serbian Church. At
the present moment it acts at once as a wall of division between the
two free Serbian principalities, and at the same time as the wasp's
waist of Turkish Bosnia. This district taken from the Turks,
Montenegro and Danubian Serbia join hands, and Bosnia is cut
adrift. The Turks, therefore, may be trusted to cling to it to the
last — nay, even at the present moment, valuable as every man is at
Kezanlik and Plevna, 10,000 men are left to garrison Stara Serbia.
The Prince of Montenegro shows his sagacity in perceiving that the
liberation of this sacred land must be fought for for the present on
Bulgarian soil. Should the Russians cross the Balkans, a military
parade may be open to him in this direction ; and so much it is safe
to say, that any peace which leaves Old Serbia in Turkish hands
will be a hollow truce.'

* For the present, therefore, the policy chalked out for the Monte-
negrin Government may be described as masterly inactivity. But a
vent must be found at the same time for the martial ardour of the
race, roused almost to Berserker fury by the recent raid of Suleiman
Pasha and the sight of devastated Zeta. Now it is precisely this vent
that the siege of Nik§i^ has supplied. The Prince has discovered a
pleasing little "Iliad" wherewith to entertain his warriors, and
though they grumble a little at the slowness of operations and shout
now and again in vain for an assault, stiU they have had the satis-
faction of feeling that they are not absolutely idle. Sometimes they
were treated to the capture of a fort, just to stop their mouths ; and
then there was the desultory pounding away of some very harmless
artillery, — to -add fireworks to the entertainment. However, the
longest siege must come to an end.'

LETTER XV.

PEACEFUL SKETCHES OF MONTENEGRO IN WAR TIME,
(l.) FROM CATTARO TO CETTINJE.

From Cattaro to Cettinje. Contrast betwun. the Bocche and the Black
Mountain. Montenegrin * transport service' A death-wail for the
heroes of Kristatz. Montenegrin wounded. The burden of war in
Montenegro, Ninety thousand refugees. Niegul, the cradle of the
dynasty. Reminiscences of Lapland, Montenegro cut off from the
sea. Cattaro taken from our then allies, the Montenegrins, by
English diplomacy,

Cettinje : June ii.*

HE mountain ascent that the traveller must
accomplish who would penetrate to the eyrie
fastnesses of Montenegro opens in a rare
conjunction visions of all that is most soft
and terrible in landscape* As you zig-zag up the
precipitous steeps of the Sella Gora, the old Vene-
tian walls of Cattaro lie immediately below you, and
beyond expands a bird's-eye view of her beautiful
Bocche, connected, indeed, with the open Adriatic by
a narrow channel, but enfolded by mountain arms,
shrouded and sheltered by those vague and mighty sinu-
osities of rock and forest, till the still blue-emerald

1 The letter, as will be seen from the preceding Note on the war in
the date, was written at the be- Montenegro,
ginning of the events recorded in

LETTER
XV.

i66

THE BOCCHE AND THE BLACK MOUNTAIN,

LETTER
XV

The Bocche
di Cattaro.

The moun-
tain portal
of Monte-
negro.

expanse of winding waters at your feet seems the bosom
of some Alpine lake. And round about its margin
blooms a vegetation as rich but more tropical in its
luxuriance than that of Como or of Garda. Here are
groves of lemon and orange and myrtle, thickets of rosy
oleander, trailing passion flowers, aloes, and majestic
palms that cannot be matched nearer than the shores of
Africa. Approaching Castelnuovo — they call it *the
Serbian Nice ' — from the Suttorina yesterday, I made my
way between hedges, any bush of which would be an
ornament to an English garden, where giant clematis of
wondrous purple entwines its tendrils with white convol-
vulus whose flowers might serve for vases, and snowy
eglantine weighed down with the profusion of its own
roses is overhung with the fiery scarlet bells of myrtle-
leaved pomegranates.

Witli visions like this ' haunting him like a passion/
the traveller turns his gaze from the lake-like sea below
to the heights above, which form the mountain portal of
Montenegro on the Adriatic side. No contrast could be
more overwhelming. Nothing above you but bare rock
steeps, stupendous crags up which the path is hewn in
zig-zags, ever ascending, till you look down from it 4,000
feet on the sea below. The fresh mountain breeze tells
you that you already tread the free soil of Czemagonu
Soil ! — but there is not pasture for the mountain goat in
this wilderness of naked rock ! As we cross the moun-
tain frontier into the little Principality the path itself
becomes more rugged, and, indeed, it has been said to
be a principle of Montenegrin statecraft that the avenue
of approach should not be made too easy for the mili-
tary Monarchy that stretches its greedy arm along the
Adriatic coastland below.

A MONTENEGRIN DIRGE,

167

Now and then there passed me trains of Montene-
grin peasants chiefly non-combatants, lads and women,
driving mules below to buy stores of corn and other
necessaries in the bazaar outside the gate of Cattaro —
the * transport ' service of the Principality is performed
by women and children ! They were a rough but sturdy
set, the prevailing colours of their costume black and
dingy white — sackcloth and ashes compared with the
more brilliant peasant throng of Bocchese and Ragusan
market-places, and with little of the Venetian aptitudes
and Italian blood-infusion of the lowlanders. But the
faces of all, and notably the lads, wore that bold and
frank expression which freedom alone can give. There
was nothing here of that sullen, hang-dog look which in
all his provinces distinguishes the rayah subject of the
Turk — that brand of degradation which seems as in-
delible on those who once have suffered from its impress
as the * three letters ' on the felon's brow.

Presently I heard a low monotonous chant d)dng and
re-echoing among the peaks above, and on looking up
saw that it proceeded from a fresh caravan of Montene-
grin mule-drivers, women, singing as they slowly wended
their way down the mountains a song that sounded
strangely like a dirge. And a dirge indeed it was ; I was
told that they were singing a death-wail for the 700
slain three days before in the fight at Kristatz,* when
four Montenegrin battalions withstood for a day the
whole army of Suleiman Pasha — ^just fifteen times their
number, and only yielded their position to overwhelming
odds, when a third of their devoted band lay dead and
wounded among the rocks, and five Turks had fallen for
every Montenegrin. The Turkish losses about Kristatz

* See p. 156.

LETTER
XV.

Transport
service of
Monte-
negro,

A Montene-
grin dirge.

1 68

MONTENEGRIN LOSSES.

LETTER
XV.

Montene-
grin losses.

were at least 2,000. But such a feat by no means

stands alone in the annals of this Black Mountain, whose

poet can sing, —

Not whiter is with foam the shore
Than red our rock with Turkish gore*

It was an inspiring thought, as one climbed the last
rock rampart of this land of heroes, that even now the
sea of Turkish barbarism was lashing its impotent waves
against the rocks around, to be hurled back in blood
But the losses of the Montenegrins are severely felt by
this little population, and by none more keenly than the
Prince himself, who looks on his subjects as his own
children in a way which more civilized communities can
hardly realize. Seven hundred may not seem a very large
tale of killed and wounded, but it is large in proportion to
the total population, serious in respect to the value of the
blood spilled. Great Britain has a population more than a
hundred times as large as that of this little Principality, but
it is likely that a loss of 70,000 men in a battle would affect
the British Government very considerably. In relation to
the size of the contending forces, the loss of the Monte-
negrins is far greater than that of the Turks. I realized
keenly the count the Montenegrins make of their losses as
I arrived at the first Montenegrin village, NieguS, the
cradle of the present dynasty, where two wounded war-
riors were just being carried in. The personal sympathy,
the visible emotion, among these rude mountaineers,
— and they were nurtured in too severe a school to be
apt to waste their sentiment ! — the tender care with which
fresh branches were placed above their faces to protect them
from the sun, were touching in the extreme. These were
being conveyed.to the hospital at Cettinje, to be tended by
Russian sisters of charity. Only yesterday, 40 Montenegrin

THE PATH TO CETTINJE,

169

wounded were carried into Cattaro ; the Principality is
already too small and poor to meet so large a call for hos-
pital accommodation. What if another batch of 500 are
borne off the field to-morrow ? Add to this, that this
penniless people has at the present moment to house
and feed 90.000 Christian refugees from Herzegovina.

Niegu§ stands in a little oasis amidst a wilderness of
limestone peaks in a lake-like bed of cultivable soil, a
* polje ' such as I have described in Free Bosnia, supporting
crops of cereals and potatoes, with every square inch of
reclaimable soil around its margin walled up in terraces
along the hillside, and husbanded as so much precious
ore. Though till lately the largest place in the whole
PrincipaUty, the capital included, it is quite a little village,
the first and most conspicuous building being, as generally
in Montenegro, the school-house, now converted into a
hospital. Miserably poor as this little State is, every
one of its children receives a good rudimentary education.
At Niegu§ begins what is intended to be a carriage-way,
leading to Cettinje, but at present one soon has to
quit this for the arduous mule-track over the mountains,
which at present is the only route. Near NieguS the
mountain plateau of the Black Mountain attains its
greatest elevation, and at one point a magnificent
prospect opened out, embracing the Bocche di Cattaro
and the Adriatic on one side, and on the other disco-
vering a dim vision of the lake of Skutari and its rich
and ample plain. Immediately around, however, was
tlie usual wilderness of rock, scattered here and there
with a few stunted and overgrown beeches. Pour lakes
into the Polje oases, square off the too conical mountain
tops with a little ice action, transform the beeches into
birch, and you find yourself in Lapland. No traveller

LETTER
XV..

Niegui,

A Monte-
negrin

landscape.

170

'DIPLOMACY:

LETTER
XV.

Thewisdom
and grati-
tude of
English
diplomacy.

Cettlnje.

turning his gaze from the desolation around him to the
distant sea and lake and the semi-tropical exuberance oi
vegetation that clothes their margin, can fail to protest
against the lot which shuts off this deserving little people
from all the avenues of wealth and industrial development.
Montenegro represents the continuity of Serbian indepen-
dence ; but Skodra, the legendary foundation of Serbian
princes, and Cattaro, the haven of the greatest of the
Serbian Czars, both lying at her feet, are to-day the very
strongholds which debar her from the sea. Yet it was not
always so. At the beginning of this century the Monte-
negrins, then the faithful allies of England, aided us in
capturing Cattaro from the hands of the French ; but
English * diplomacy ' showed its gratitude by adding Cat-
taro to the nearest despot at hand (the Austrian), thus
cutting off the little free State once more from its natural
emporium.

At last, from a rugged summit beyond Niegu§, I caught
a first. glimpse of the grassy 'polje' of Cettinje ; and seven
hours of difficult progress after my start from Cattaro
brought me to Cettinje itself, the capital of Montenegro—
a little one-streeted village, with 'a cottage at one end a
little larger than the rest, which is the Prince's palace,
and an inn, between which and the princely residence
there is not much to choose. But I must reserve for
more peaceful times a description of what is undoubtedly
* the smallest capital in Europe/

LETTER XVI.

PEACEFUL SKETCHES OF MONTENEGRO IN WAR TIME,
(ll.) IN THE VILLAGE CAPITAL.

Immense tax of war on male population of the Principality. Marvel-
lous carrying power of the uuomen. Their gueenliness. The Princess
and P,rincely Family of Montenegro. The Elders of the People. A
Capitan of a Montenegrin Nahia. Dislike of the Russians in
Montenegro. Conversations with wounded heroes.

Cettinje : September 6.

ERE at Cettinje and the other villages of the
interior everything is very quiet. The war-
riors are on the frontier watching the Alba-
niansat Podgoritza, beleaguering Nik§ic, guarding
the northern mouth of the Duga Pass against the Maho-
metan irr^ulars of Bosnia and Herzegovina collected to
relieve the straitened garrison.

All is quiet ; but one has plenty of evidence as to the
hardships' which this gallant little people is cheerfully
enduring. One meets few men except on crutches.
Women and children are doing men's work— mules' work,
I should rather say ! — you pass women on the mountain
paths carrying cannon balls to the troops. A single village
will give a very good idea of what Montenegro is at the
present moment At Niegu§, the other day, I found the
school turned into a hospital, and a church converted into
a magazine for cartridges.

LETTER
XVI.

172

MONTENEGRIN PRINCESSES,

LETTER
XVI.

A Monte-
negrin
village in
war-time.

Strength
and queen-
liness of the
women.

The

Princess of
Monte-
negro.

I asked how many men there were belonging to the
village, and was told there were 500.

* And how many of these are now away in the war ? '

* Three hundred and fifty.'

But what women and children they are ! It is not
only their strength, incredible as it is ; the usual regula-
tion burden for a woman making the day's mountain
ascent from Cattaro to Cettinje is 60 lb., supported by
many day after day, weather permitting, the year round.
It is not only this marvellous carrying power, but, what
one would not have expected side by side with it— and
what it must be allowed is more perceptible in the girls
and younger women — they are possessed of a straightness
of limb, and, when without their heavier burdens, of a
dignity of carriage which, so far as I am aware, cannot be
rivalled anywhere else in Europe. Tall and majestic,
like the male portion of their race, every Montenegrin
woman that progresses along the high street of Cettinje
— to say she walked would be to travesty that stately gait!
— is a queen by birthright ; every girl a bom princess.

The Princess of Montenegro herself, who is much
beloved here, and who, blending as she does the charac-
teristic charms of Italia^ and Slavonic beauty, is one of
the few princesses of Europe ^vho scarcely yields the
golden apple to our own future Queen, stays at home in
her little palace as a good wife should whose husband is
on the battle-field, receiving no one but official person-
ages. There are seven little daughters, two of whom are
now being educated in St. Petersburg, and one son, who
bears the name of the greatest of his dynasty, Danilo.
The little boy is only six and a half years old, but he is
being trained in the way he should go. With a small
retinue of Montenegrin guards — Perianiks they are called

THE ELDERS OF THE PEOPLE.

173

— he goes out hunting among the brushwood-covered
rocks that environ Cettinje, armed with a gun adapted to
his small hands, and very rarely does he return without
some small deer to show as a trophy of his sport. Only
yesterday I saw the little Prince, surrounded by his tall
guards, coming back from such an excursion, and holding
up a small bird in triumph. The Princess and his sisters
hurried down to the garden gate to meet their sportsman,
who did not seem to think their kisses beneath his
dignity.

Of the men still here the most striking are a few grave
senators — Capitans of Nahias (as the chiefs of the Mon-
tenegrin cantons are called), whose days of active service
have passed, and who stay at home to judge the people
in the absence of the host. Nothing can exceed the
severe dignity of these men ; they sit apart, clothed in
their patriarchal state, and exercise a kind of sovereign
sway over all around. To find their like one must go
back two thousand years to that * Senate of Kings.'
While at Niegu§ I made the acquaintance of the Capitan
of the Nahia, who was sitting in state outside the roadside
hovel that calls itself an inn. Probably he has no more
worldly wealth than an English farm labourer, but he has
the air of royalty itself; indeed, he happens to be uncle
of the reigning Prince. While I was there some women,
\vho, it appears, had assaulted the husband of one of them
(they can be viragos as well as queens when they like !),
were brought up for judgment before the capitan, and,
the evidence being conclusive, he exercised his judicial
function by committing them to ' prison,' the prison being
a ruined hovel, where the three women were shut up with
a pig, the usual tenant of the premises.

Picture now to yourself the stately capitan sitting a

LETTER

xvr.

The little
Prince.

A Monte-
negrin
Capitan.

174

A MONTENEGRIN AND A RUSSIAN.

LETTER
XVI.

A Monte-
negrin
Capitan
and a Rus-
sian doctor.

Unpopu-
larity of
Russians
in Monte-
negro,

little apart on his rustic curule chair, and now and again
indulging his English guests with a leisiu-ely question
between the whiffs of a chibouk full four feet long.

All of a sudden our patriarchal serenity is broken
into by an excited figure in European costume bustling
into our midst and demanding in a most peremptory
tone, * Where is the Capitan ? You, sir — do you hear me,
sir ? What do you mean by shutting up those women in
the sty instead of sending them to fetch wood for the
hospital ? ' [The schoolhouse converted into a hospital
was just opposite, and there was a goodly pile of wood
ready stacked before it, so that it was hard to see any just
ground of complaint]

The Capitan starts from his curule chair, fairly taken
aback, and the Russian doctor — for the Russian doctor
it was — pours in a fresh volley. But our Capitan has
got his broadside fairly round by this time, and after a
short but animated engagement the Russian had to sheer
off. The Montenegrin informed him flatly that he was
judge there, and that the women should stay in prison
just as long as he chose, and not a moment less.

How could one wonder after this that the Russians
are unpopular in Montenegro? Unpopular they cer-
tainly are, even among those who owe most to their
charitable exertions. The fact is that they cannot under-
stand the tgalitaire spirit of the Montenegrins. They
come here (of course I except Russian gentlemen like the
Superintendent of Hospitals at Cettinje) with a general
air of patronage, thinking that the mountaineers will fawn
upon their benefactors, and are unpleasantly undeceived.
Then they resent this stiurdy independence, and try to
swagger it down, but with as little success.

Montenegro is willing enough to accept Russian help,

TALKS WITH WOUNDED HEROES.

175

but she certainly has given a quid pro quOy and does not
choose to be treated as a pensioner. Nor can the Mon-
tenegrins forget how often Russia in her Turkish wars has
made the little Principality a cat's-paw, and left it in the
lurch when the day of settling came. People here are
very suspicious of England, and there is hardly a Mon-
tenegrin who does not believe that our Government has
given great pecuniary aid to the Porte; but against
Englishmen as individuals no such feeling exists, and an
Englishman is much more likely to meet with a favourable
reception here than a Russian. At bottom there is a
great respect for us and our free institutions, and a cor-
responding dread of Russian autocracy. A singularly
intelligent Montenegrin slowly recovering from his
wounds — under the care, be it remarked, of Russian
doctors — spoke of the Russians here in a very hostile
spirit * When you have dealings with an Englishman,* he
said, ' you know what you are about ; but you must keep
yoiu: eye on the Russian ! '

* Would you like to visit England ? ' I asked him.

* No/ he answered gravely, * I could never leave our
rock — a day on the sea and out of sight of our high
mountains would kill me.'

These wounded Montenegrins are fine fellows and
endowed with a wonderful power of recovery. Only
about five per cent, of the wounded carried to the Hospi-
tal die, and none but grave cases are admitted; the
slightly injured being carried to their huts.

* I only pray to God,' said one with whom I conversed
the other day, *that I may meet five Turks alone ! ''

LETTER
XVI.

Monte-
negrin
opinion of
Russia.

Talks with

wounded

heroes.

LETTER XVII.

LETTER
XVII.

Sept. 8.

THE FALL OF NIKSid *

Welcome accession of strength to Montenegrin artillery. Four Russian
guns landed at Austrian port and carried off by Montenegrins.
Turks ask for truce. Renewal of hostilities. Storming ofP(tr<rva
Glavitza. Homeric incidents— jeering, songs, and *gestes ' of heroes.
A single combat. Final assault on NikKS. Terms of capitulation
granted. Admirable defence of Turkish Commandant. Importance
of Nikii^ to Montenegro : a key to the Principality hitherto in
Turkish hands. Previous attempts of Montenegrins to capture it.
NikHc, formerly Onogost, an Imperial City of Serbian Czars. Last
Diet of Serbian Empire here.

IVI KNJA^E NIKOLA !~Long live Prince
Nicholas. Our little Iliad is ended, and after
four hundred years of Ottoman captivity and just
forty days' siege, NikSid, the old Serbian Ono-
gost of epic fame, is again in Christian hands.

The siege had been much delayed by the weakness
of the Montenegrins in artillery, but a few days since a
Greek vessel appeared off the Austrian port of Castel-
astua and then and there proceeded to land four cannon,
— two of them twelve-and-a-half pounder Krupps— a
Russian gift to the Principality. Thereupon the Austrian
authorities of Castelastua telegraphed to Cattaro for in-

' This letter never reached its
destination. I have thus been able
to add some details to what I had
originally written. The military

actions described were related to
me by friends who had actually
taken part in them.

A TURKISH TELEGRAM,

117

structions, and appear to have waited some time, for
in the interval two battalions of Montenegrins, about
I, GOO in all, descended from the mountains into the
Austrian town and carried off the cannon in triumph to
their rocks, aided by the native Pastrovichians. It is
pretty generally understood at Cettinje that the whole
thing was executed with Austrian collusion.

The Krupp guns despatched from Russia once in
position, events advanced apace.

On Tuesday, September 4, the impression produced
by the new arrivals led the Turkish commandant, Skan-
derbeg (a Hungarian by birth), to ask a truce, which the
Prince granted on condition that the garrison would
enciploy the interval in considering the necessity of sur-
render.* On Thursday, however, the Turks, who still
hoped for relief from Hafiz Pasha, renewed hostilities,
having, diu-ing the night re-occupied the rocky knoll of
Petrova Glavitza, which had been taken at an earlier
period by a Montenegrin battalion, but evacuated by the
Prince's command, 'because they had acted without
orders.' So now Petrova Glavitza had to be retaken.

^ It may amuse my readers if
I recaU a Turidsh telegram with
reference to this day's occurrence,
that went the round of the English
papers. This telegraphic gem is
dated Podgoritza, Wednesday,
September 5 — the day of the truce
between the Montenegrins and the
garrison of Nik^d. Here it is :—

* Podgoritza, Wednesday. — Two
columns of Montenegrin troops who
were advancing to make an assault oa
NikSid came into collision with one
another, in consequence of the obscu-
rity caused by the smoke from the

burning crops in the neighbourhood.
They attacked each other; and the
garrison of Nik£<5, profiting by the
Cfmfusum wluchtnsued, made a sorde,
and inflicted on the Montenegrins a
loss of 1,300 killed.'

While the Turkish telegraphist
was composing this, the Turks of
Nikii6 and the Montenegrins
were mixing freely with one
another in the fields about the
town, discussing the incidents of
the siege and even taking coffee
together I

LETTKR
XVII.

Cannon
carried off
by Monte-
negrins
ftvm
Austrian
territory.

Truce
granted to
gat rison of
Niksie.

Hostilities
renewed.

178

STORMING OF PETROVA GLAVITZA.

LETTER
XVII.

Storming
of Petrava
Glavitxa,

not without loss. Two bodies of 150 men, with a third
of the same strength, as a reserve, were detached to
accomplish this difficult task. The actual assault was
entrusted to the band under Captain Simonid, the other
150 making a feint on the opposite side of the hill

It was about half an ' hour after midnight when
Simonid's storm party advanced to the attack, while, as
a surprise was intended, a lively fire was kept up from
the Montenegrin positions over their heads. The at-
tacking party had now to cross a large maize field, their
friends' bullets whistling in a continual shower close
above their heads, but the Turks, who seem to have
scented danger, not answering a shot The Montene-
grins were now within fifty paces of the Turkish position,
when they were observed by the enemy. A shout of
* Allah! Allah!' rang firom the rocks above, and a
murderous fire, such as no Montenegrin present had ever
experienced, was poured on the attacking party. The
Montenegrins answered with a hearty * Czemogorska I'
but advanced still some twenty paces through a storm of
shot which cost them several men — they lost here ten
dead and seventeen wounded — before replying with a
well-directed volley. Another ringing * Czemogorska!'
told their friends that they had gained the rocks ; another
moment and they were bounding up the Turkish position
like mountain goats.

It was now all over with the Turks, who were no
match for the Montenegrins in a hand-to-hand struggle
among their native rocks,- and the. defenders fled pell-
mell towards the city, leaving eighteen dead on the
Glavitza.

The Montenegrins might have profited by the con-
fusion to take NikSid by assault, but the Turkish

GESTES OF HEROES,

179

commandant seeing the danger, and fearing some further
surprise in the darkness, resorted to the expedient of
setting fire to two large magazines, which soon lit up the
Glavitza rocks and the other fell strongholds of the
besiegers, almost with the light of day. The Monte-
negrins, therefore, contented themselves with employing
the rest of the night in rearing stone breastworks along
the flanks of the captured ridge looking towards Niksid,
the Turks, meanwhile, making some excellent artillery
practice, striking two Montenegrin batteries, in one of
which they killed, or disabled, seven gunners ; in the
other, only one.

Thus ended the last serious fighting of the siege.
When day broke, the Turks and Montenegrins found
themselves within speaking distance, and then occurred
one of those strange old-world episodes — so little in
harmony with modern scientific warfare — of which the
siege of NikSic has been so prolific. The warriors on
either side might be heard singing ballads of their own
composing, in which they vaxmted the * gestes ' of their
own heroes or ' Junaks,' and jeered at the discomfiture
of their foes. These * gestes,' indeed, of Paynim and
Giaour alike take us back to Acre or Ascalon I

Only a few days since a mighty Montenegrin man of
valour, priest and warrior at once, in the good old style,
one Pope Milo, rode towards the Turkish lines and
challenged any infidel who dared meet him to single
combat A Turk of NikSid (one has to call them Turks,
though they are as pure-blooded Slavs as their opponents)
forthwith accepted the challenge. The opposing ranks
sheathed their handjars, and the mortal combat took place
in the presence of Turks and Montenegrins. Both sides
awaited the issue with bated breath. Suddenly the Mon-

LETTER
XVII.

Desperate
expedient of
command-
ant.

Jeering
oallads.

A single
combat.

N 2

i8o

THE FINAL ASSAULT.

LETTER

xvri.

Final
assault on
outworks.

Turkish
command-
ant

resolves to
surrender.

tenegrin falls. The Moslem with a few dexterous strokes
with his handjar severs his head from his body. He
was proceeding to complete his spoil by stripping his
adversary's body, but the mountaineers, already infuriated
by the fall of their champion, could contain themselves
no longer ; they rushed forward, and in the m^l^e the
Turkish * Junak ' met the fete of his rival.

Except a prolonged cannonade and this interchange
of * winged words ' little was attempted on Friday ; but
during the night the Turkish rock strongholds of Stude-
natz, on the side of the town remote from Glavitza, were
taken by a rear surprise. The Montenegrins leaped into
the entrenchment almost before the Turks were aware of
their proximity. Two small forts were captured in this
manner ; the Turks were stricken with panic and hardly
offered any resistance, though they were well provided
with the means, two hundred unused hand-grenades falling
into the hands of the Montenegrins. The assailants only
lost I killed and 2 wounded ; the Tuirks left 9 dead and
f 8 wounded in the captured positions.

The Montenegrins were now practically masters of
the suburbs of NikSid, and the possession of Mt. Chade-
litza gave them a dominating position from which to
pound the citadel. During the night a happily directed
shell struck, scattered, and destroyed some valuable stores
of ammunition: — the Turks had only twenty-four rounds
of shot left at the moment of surrender.

The Turkish commandant, despairing of relief from
without, conscious that he had done all that a brave man
could do, and further encouraged by some previous inti-
mations that the garrison might expect generous treatment
at the Prince's hands, determined to surrender. On Sa-
turday morning, September 8th, a Turkish Parlementaire

CAPITULATION OF NIKSlC.

i8i

with a deputation of forty Turks of Niksid made their
way to the Montenegrin head-quarters, and were con-
ducted to the Prince. The Prince received them reclining
on a ' struka ^ or Montenegrin plaid spread upon a rock,
and, having first taken coffee with them in true Oriental
fashion and paid a well- deserved tribute to their heroism,
expressed his willingness to grant them the honours
of war.

The Terms of Capitulation finally ratified were as
follows:

Article i.—The garrison of NikSid surrenders itself un-
conditionally and without reserve into the hands of
Prince Nikola of Montenegro.

Article 2. — In consideration of the great valour displayed
by the garrison during the siege, his Highness is willing
to concede that the garrison, after first defiling before
the Montenegrin army and lowering their flags, shall
retire to Gatzko, retaining their arms.

Article 3. — That all cannon, stores, and munitions of war
at present in Nik§i<5 shall be handed over to the Prince's
officers.

Article 4. — That all inhabitants of Nik§i<5 who elect to
remain imder the Prince's government shall be left in
secure possession of their lands, houses, goods, and
chattels ; that they shall enjoy fi-ee toleration for their
religion, and all the privileges and inununities of natives
of the Principality: that those on the other hand who
elect to withdraw from Nik5id shall be allowed to
depart unmolested, carrying with them all their move-
able possessions, and that up to a certain date a guard
of Montenegrin soldiers shall escort them to those
points of the Turkish frontier whither they may wish to
emigrate.

LETTER
XVII.

Surrender
ofNikiU,

Terms of
capitula-
tion.

i82 BRAVERY OF THE COMMANDANT AND GARRISON.

LETTER
XVII.

The garri-
son march
out.

Remarks
of the
Turkish
command-
ant.

Testimony
to his
efficiency.

The garrison defiled past in excellent order. Put the
Montenegrins opened their eyes when they saw the small
force of the defenders — only two-and-a-half battalions, of
which only one consisted entirely of regulars. No one
was. more astonished than the Prince himself, who had on
one occasion expressed his belief that the garrison con-
sisted of at least 4,000 men. It seemed almost incredible
that with the Montenegrins in possession of the surround-
ing hills this small force should have successfully defended
their ramshackle citadel, the scattered city, and seven
detached forts, for nearly six weeks, against 10,000 of the
most intrepid warriors to be found in Europe.

* Look at the citadel ! look at the fortifications ! '
remarked the Turkish commandant to a friend of mine.
* Again, and again, I reported their deplorable condition
at Stamboul. I urged that in their present state they
were quite untenable. The War Office made plans, but
nothing cam e of them. Had my requisitions been attended
to, with a few more regulars from Suleiman's army, I could
have held NikSid for years ! '

No blame certainly attaches to the commandant him-
self. All that was possible to do he did ; and a Prussian
officer, who visited the citadel immediately after the sur-
render, spoke to me with admiration of the scientific order
in which he found everything, and the construction of
the supplementary defences rendered necessary by the
breaching. * One might,' he said, * have been in a
Prussian fortress.'

The acquisition of twenty-one cannon and an al^iost
inexhaustible store of war material, including two powder
magazines and about 10,000 horse-loads of provisions, is
really the least important aspect of the capture of Nik§i(5
by the Montenegrins. It is not too much to say that

VALUE OF NIKSIC TO MONTENEGRO.

'83

with its possession begins a new era for the Principality.
The acquisition of the rich plain alone which surrounds
the city doubles the wealth of Montenegro at a stroke.
The security of the country is indefinitely increased.
Nik§ic has been a perpetual thorn in the side of Monte-
negro. Holding NikSid on one side and Podgoritza on
the other, the Turks have contrived (of course with the
aid of English diplomatists and others ') to run two wedges
of hostile territory, of which these two strongholds were
the steel points, into the very centre of the Principality,
well-nigh splitting it in two. On the side of Nik5i<5 a gap
opens in the mountain walls of our little Slavonic Swit-
zerland ; they sink at this point to the inconsiderable
altitude of only 600 feet above the plain, and a way is
thus opened into the heart of the country. This is a gate
of the mountain citadel, and the Turk has held its key.
Time and again, from that ill-omened September day, 1714,
when Numan Pasha deluged the whole country with a
Turkish horde, raised by the Montenegrin chronicler to
120,000 men, down to the invasion of Suleiman Pasha in
June last, the Turks have shown that they knew how to
make use of the key in their possession. The obstinate
and repeated attempts made by the Montenegrins through-
out their history to take NikSid, show that they have
never underrated the vital importance of its possession,
though hitherto they have been prevented from effecting
their object by their deficiency in siege material.

It is interesting, however, to notice that the occasion
on which the Montenegrins most nearly achieved the
capture of Nik§i<5 was in 1807, when they were acting with
the Russians as our allies, against the French in Dalmatia.
At that time a division of about 1,000 Russians were
detached to aid the Vladika in his siege operations, and

LETTBE
XVII.

Value of
NikKito
Monte-
negro,

Repeated
attempts to
capture it.

Siege of
Ntksi^
during
alliance
between
English
and Monte-
negrins.

184

NIKSiC under the SERBIAN EMPIRE,

LETTER
XVII.

Nik§i(5 was on the point of falling, when a quarrel between
the Russian commanders deprived the mountaineers of
their siege train and foreign auxUiaries.

If one goes back even to a time when Montenegro
was not yet Montenegro, to the days of the Serbian
Empire, one finds NikSid, then known as *Onogost/
playing not less an important part as an imperial city.
The stately tombs, dating from those Old Serbian days,
which still exist in Nik§i(5 are alone sufficient to tell us that
the city was then far more important than it is to-day.
It is instructive to recall that in the last days of the Ser-
bian Czardom, when the Empire of Czar Dushan was
crumbling to pieces through internal dissensions — in days
of anarchy and disruption — Niksi<5, or Onogost, was the
scene of perhaps the last Imperial effort towards peace
and union. It was here, in 1392, five years before his
death, that Uro5 the Young, the last Serbian Czar, ratified
in council the terms of a pacification between the lord of
what is now Herzegovina, the citizens of Cattaro, and the
Republic of Ragusa.

LETTER XVIII.

A WAR-DANCE AT CETTINJE.

Prince Nikola announces the fall of NikSid in a poetic telegram to the
Princess. Announcement of the tidings by the Princess to the people.
Ecstatic rejoicings. War-dance before the Palace at night. Monte-
negrin Court ladies dancing with the warriors. Epic minstrelsy.
The ' Green Apple-tree' song, ' Out there, out there-^beyond the moun-
tains.'

Cettinje : September 8.

RINCE NIKOLA, who is a poet and a Monte-
negrin, telegraphed the news of the fall of
Nik§i<5 to his consort at Cettinje in a poetic
quatrain.
Vojvode Plamenatz told me that his Highness
* knocked off' this little effusion in a gay mood while
sitting with him and the Turkish commandant shortly
after the surrender. It has quite a Homeric ring, and
the translator must, evidently, make use of an archaic
metre^ : —

Mine is the standard that floats to-day above Onogost's

Castle ; »

Plamenatz, leader in war, quaffs the red wine cup below ;

* The original lines of Prince
Nikola are as follows — it will be
seen that my translation is nearly
verbatim : —
'Na bielu OnogoStu zastava se

moja bije,

A Plamenac Voievoda pod njim

ruino vino pije ;
Oko njega harjaktari zagraktaSe

ka' Orlovi ;
A Nikli6 sjetni. Tuini sad su meni

sve robovi.'

LETTER
XVIII.

1 86

THE PRINCESS ANNOUNCES THE NEWS.

LETTRR
XVIII.

The
Princess
announces
the news to
the people at
Cettinje.

Ecstatic re-
joicings.

Shrieking, like mountain eagles, the standard bearers

around him
Gather ; but NikSiif mourns, captive to-day of my arms.

Could one ask for a more appropriate despatch where-
with to wind up our little Montenegrin * Iliad ' ?

It was half-past two when the glad tidings reached
the small palace at Cettinje. Heralds were sent to tell
the citizens that the Princess had something important to
communicate to them. In five minutes the whole place
was astir, and the people thronging before the palace
gate.

The Princess now stepped forth on to the balcony
and informed the crowd, amidst a breathless silence,
that NikSid was taken. She had intended to read her
husband's poetic telegram, but was cut short by a tre-
mendous * ^ivio !' (Evviva ! ) and a simultaneous volley
firom the guns and pistols of her loyal subjects, and
retired kissing her hand.

The scene that followed almost baffles description.
The people surged along the street, firing, shouting,
singing, leaping with joy. It is an enthusiasm, an
ecstasy, unintelligible, impossible in a civilized country
— hardly to be expressed in civilized terms. You, from
your work-a-day island, look on as belonging to an adult
world apart, conscious of a something taken from you by
centuries of * progress,' — ^with the half sympathies of a
pedagogue watching children at their play ! Yes, these
are children 1 — children in their primitive simplicity, in
the whole poetry of their being ; children in their speech,
their politics, their warfare ; and this is the wild, self-
abandoned delight of children

Ancient veterans, grim, rugged mountain giants, fall
about each other's necks and kiss each other for very joy.

CETTINJE IN ECSTASY.

187

The wounded themselves are helped forth from the hos-
pitals, and hobble along on crutches to take part in the
rejoicings j men, in the ambulances, dying of their wounds,
lit up, I was told, when they heard these tidings, and
seemed to gain a new respite of life. Crowds are continu-
ally bursting into national songs, and hymns, broken at
intervals with a wild * ^ivio ! iivio ! ' and ringing hurrahs
which Czemogortzi, as well as Englishmen, know how to
utter. The big ancient bells of the monastery, and the
watch-tower on the rocks above, peal forth. The bronze
cannon — a gift from the sister Principality — is dragged
out, and salvoes of artillery tell every upland village tiiat
Nik§i<5 has fallen ; the thunder-tones of triumph boom on
from peak to peak ; they are redoubled in a thousand
detonations across the rock-wilderness of Chevo \ they
rumble with cavern-tones through the vine-clad dells of
Cermnitzka and Rieka; they are caught far away in
fainter echoes by the pine woods of the Mora&i — dying
and re-awaking, till with a last victorious effort they burst
the bounds of the Black Mountain, and roll on to the
lake of Skutari, the lowlands of Albania, the bazaars of
Turkish Podgoritza.

The Metropolitan of Montenegro, most unsacerdotal
of prelates — have I not seen him any summer evening,
undeterred by his long robes, * putting the stone ' with
athletic members of his flock? have not tuns of ale
been flowing at his expense for the last half-hour? is it
not written in his face ? and shall I hesitate about the
epithet?— Xht Jolly Metropolitan of Montenegro proceeds
to form a ring on the greensward outside the village
capital, and there — between the knoll that marks the
ruins of a church destroyed centuries ago by the Turks,
and the Elm of Judgment, where of old the Vladikas sat

LETTER

xvrii.

Cettinje in
ecstasy.

The Metro-
politan of
Montenegro
forms a
ring for a
war-dance.

i88

A MONTENEGRIN WAR-DANCE,

LETTER
XVIII.

A war-
dance before
ike Palace
at night.

and judged the people — the warriors dance in pairs a
strange barbaric war-dance.

In the evening the dance is renewed before the
palace. Little Cettinje illuminates itself, and the palace
walls and entrance are brilliant with long rows of stearine
candles. It is here, before the palace gate, that the
people form a large circle, the front rank of the specta-
tors holding lighted tapers to illumine the arena. On
the palace steps sits the Princess amidst her ladies, and
little Danilo, the * Hope of Montenegro,* stands in the
gateway, almost among the other bystanders.

Two old senators, whose dancing days were over,
one would have thought, a generation since, step forth
into the ring, and open the ball amidst a storm of cheers.
Younger warriors take up the dance — the * dance !' but
how describe it ? Of this I am sure, that a traveller might
cross Central Africa without meeting with anything more
wild, more genuinely primitive.

The warriors dance in pairs, but several pairs at a
time. In turns they are warriors, wild beasts, clowns,
jack-o'-lanterns, morris dancers, teetotums, madmen I
They dance to one another and with one another, now on
one leg, then on the other. They bounce into the air,
they stamp upon the ground, they pirouette, they snatch
lighted tapers from the bystanders and whirl them hither
and thither in the air, like so many Will-o'-the-Wisps. In
a Berserker fury they draw from their sashes their silver-
mounted pistols, and take Hying shots at the stars ; their
motions slacken ; they follow each other ; they are on
the war-path now — they step stealthily as a panther
before it springs — they have leaped ! but are they bears or
wild cats ? They are hugging one another now ; they

A 'CHOROS' OF ANTIQUITY.

189

are kissing one another with effusion. Other pairs of
warriors enter the arena, and this bout is concluded.

At every turn in the dance they give vent to strange
guttural cries ; they yelp like dogs, or utter the short
shrieks of a bird of prey. Was there a time — one is
tempted to ask — when the dancers consciously imper-
sonated the birds and beasts whose cries they imitated ?
Did they, too, once, as the American Indians do still,
disguise themselves in the skins of wolves and bears, or
the plumes of a mountain eagle ?

Perhaps, after all, this was originally a hunting dance,
and has been transferred later on to the god of war.
Perhaps, — ^but the most fascinating of interludes cuts
short our speculations ! The rank and beauty of Monte-
negro must pay its tribute to manly valour.

One at a time, in light white Montenegrin dress — in
delicate raiment for Cettinje— step forth from the palace
gate a bevy of fair damsels. These are the relations of
the Prince himself, among them his sister, the wife of
Vojvode Plamenatz, the new governor of NikSid ; and
the beautiful young wife of his cousin Boio Petrovi<5, the
hero and saviour of Montenegro, come to honour the
people's representatives by dancing with theno.

Nothing can exceed the tender majesty of these
Princesses among Princesses ; their dainty tripping forms
a pleasing contrast to the more uncouth performance of
the men. Nothing is lost in this light natural attire ;
their every motion is instinct with grace ; they have flung
aside their sombre kerchiefs, and the long black tresses
of their hair are caught in wavelets by the breeze. The
scene is of Homeric times, and these are the pure, true
forms of Antiquity ! * Horo,' their dance is called, and

LETTER
XVIII.

Strange

guttural

cries.

The Monte-
negrin
Princesses
dance with
the war-
riors.

190

EPIC MINSTRELSY,

LETTER
XVIII.

Epic min-
strelsy.

The Green
AppU-tree
song.

it might have been a * chores ' of some Hellenic festival
divine.

These old-world revels have their epic minstrelsy too.
The people pressing round the dancers' ring pour forth
a measured flow of song, antique in tones and cadence
as the dances it accompanies ; vigorous only in its per-
sistence, spirit-stirring only to the initiated ; to the out-
sider monotonous, almost doleful ; as if even the music
were so intensely national as of set purpose to repel the
stranger. Yet what frenzy seizes on the dancing warriors
as these songs proceed ! What * joys of battle ' do they
not re-live ' How their eyes flash, and how they brandish
their weapons against imaginary foes ! These ballads
are the poetic chronicles of four hundred years of inces-
sant fight for freedom against the Turk, and those who
hear them seem to clothe themselves in the flesh and
blood of generations of heroic forefathers. It is the
infancy of music lisping of the infancy of history, and
that dull measured cadence is the heart-throb of a people
still in the sturdiness of youth.

Each * fyt ' begins with a short song of a more lyric
character, known as * The Green Apple-tree Song,' which
gives its name to the whole, but has no connexion
apparently with what follows. Like the rest, however, it
is very old, and has its origin far away amid the mists of
Slavonic heathendom. We have here a mystic tree, a
bird of omen, a hero warned of impending danger, a
reference to bygone Czars. It has the true old Slavonic
ring, and one feels as if one might hear it repeated by
Russian peasants on the banks of the Volga or some
ice-girt island of Lake Onega. Here is an English
version : —

A NATIONAL HYMN.

191

O green apple tree !
And green fruit given thee ;
Two branches there are,
And two apples they bear,
But on the third
Sits the falcon bird,
And he looks to the plain
Where Koshut Capitain
Sits, drinking all day.
And to him doth say :
* Hie away I Hie away !
Poor Koshut 1 much I fear
The hunters are near —
Czemogortzi are they,
They will bear thee away ;
They will bear thee afar
To the home of the Czar.*

But the night grows old. The Princess has already
retired. The Metropolitan gives the signal to conclude
the festivities by moving towards the monastery. The
crowd follows his footsteps, and bursts as by a sponta-
neous instinct into that most thrilling of Montenegrin
songs — a song which touches on the most hallowed
memories and the dearest aspirations of a people three
quarters still enslaved ; a song inspiring at any time, but
tenfold inspiring now that the hopes it breathes seem
nearer their realization than at any time in the past four
centuries. * Onamo, onamo, za b'rda ' (Out there, out
there, beyond the mountains), where the greatest of the
Serbian Czars is sleeping, like Charlemagne, and Arthur,
and Barbarossa, in his legendary cavern till his Vila
guardian shall awake him.

Has the day of liberation come indeed ? But the

LETTER
XVIII.

The Green
Apple-tree
song. .

The

national
hymn of
Monte-
negro.

192 OUT THERE, OUT THERE, BEYOND THE MOUNTAINS.

LETTER
XVIII.

A national
hymn.

refrain of every stanza returns with a melancholy
echo ; —

Out there, out there, beyond the mountains :
My Czar has ceased to speak, they say ;
Of heroes was his speech that day.

Out there, out there, beyond the mountains ;
In some dark cave beneath the hill.
They say my Czar is sleeping still.
He wakes ! and rising in our wrath
We'll hurl the proud usurper forth :
From D^chan church to Prisrend towers
That olden heritage is ours !

Out there, out there, beyond the mountains :
They say a verdant forest quakes,
Where D^chan's sainted race awakes ;
A single prayer within that shrine.
And Paradise is surely mine !

Out there, out there, beyond the mountains :
Where the blue sky to heavenlier light
Is breaking — brothers, to the fight !

Out there, out there, beyond the mountains :
Where tramps the foaming steed of war,
Old Jugo calls his sons afar
* To aid ! to aid !— in my old age
Defend me from the foeman's rage ! '

Out there, out there, beyond the mountains :
My children, follow one and ?ill.
Where Nikola, your Prince, doth call,
And steeps anew in Turkish gore
The sword Czar Dushan flashed of yore,

Out there, out there, beyond the mountains.

LETTER XIX.

NIK§I(5 IN MONTENEGRIN HANDS, (k)
EXODUS OF MAHOMETAN POPULATION.

Exodus of Mahometan population in spite of Prince Nikola' s assurances.
Refusal of Turks to accept equality before the law, Obtnous advan-
tages to Montenegro of Mahometan emigration. The Montenegrin
'Vespers.' Transformation of Asia into Europe. Artistic regreU.
NikSU and its Plain indispensable to the Principality. Good conduct
oj Montenegrins since the capture. Turks and Christians frater-
nizing. Calumnious tales of Montenegrin atrocity circulated in
European papers. Frank confession of a fanatic.

NiHid : September 21.

OR the last few days I have been the witness of a
melancholy spectacle — ^the wholesale emigration
of the Mahometan population of NikSid But
do not imagine that this is due to any harshness
on the part of the conquerors. Immediately on entering
the town Prince Nikola convoked the leading Mussulman
townspeople, and informed them in the most reassuring
terms that he guaranteed for all who chose to remain
complete personal security, the possession of their houses,
lands, and all property, perfect religious freedom, and,
in fact, all the rights of Montenegrin citizenship, including
the right to carry arms. On the other hand, if any chose
to depart, they would be allowed to carry all their

LETTER
XIX.

Mahome-
tan exodus
from
NikHd.

194

MAHOMETAN EXODUS FROM NIKSiC.

LETTER
XIX.

Refusal of
Maho-
metanpopu^
lation to
accept
equality
before the
law.

Advan-
tages of Ma-
hometan
exodus to
Monte-
negro,

moveables with them, and would be supplied with horses
and guards by the Montenegrin Government.

The Mahometans, it might have been expected, would
have accepted the generous terms offered them and re-
mained; but it has not been so. The greater bulk of
the Mahometans of Niksid — and the fact has great im-
portance as evidence of what in similar circumstances
may be expected to take place in other parts of Turkey-
have preferred poverty and exile, the loss of house and
land, to remaining in a place where they could no longer
feel themselves the dominant caste.

Equality before the law has been offered them ; but
equality before the law is precisely the thing which the
Tiu*ks will not accept

Some of them no doubt expect that at no distant date
the Sultan's troops will recapture NikSid, and that they
may then return and claim their own. But such hopes
are vain; there are few more certain things as to the
future of these lands than that NikSid will remain in Mon-
tenegrin hands.

By emigrating wholesale the Mahometan inhabitants
have but been playing into the hands of their conquerors.
Had they elected to remain, the danger of an hnmU
within the walls would have much hampered the defensive
strength of a garrison ; and to keep in check an armed
population of some 4,000 fanatics a large body of Mon-
tenegrin troops must continually have been drawn off
from other services. Long since, the little Principality
has learned the danger of possessing a large Moslem popu-
lation within its borders; the renegades were always ready
to conspire with their co-religionists beyond the border,
and the darkest chapter in Montenegrin history tells how
they opened a way for the Turk into the heart of the

MAHOMETAN EXODUS FROM NIKSiC.

195

country. Montenegro would, indeed, long ere this have
become a Turkish pashalic but for the terrible remedy
devised by the greatest of her Vladikas.

Montenegro, too, has her * Vespers.' On Christmas eve,
1702, the whole Mahometan population was taassacred
from one end of the country to the other.

But, with such experiences in the past, it may be
imagined that the incorporation of 4,000 Turks in the
body politic at one fell swoop was regarded by many
Montenegrins with great misgivings, insomuch that
the most respected man and the bravest general in the
country, the Vojvoda Boio Petrovid, told me only the
other day that had he had the management of affairs he
would never have given the Turks the option of remaining. ,

As it is, Turkish fanaticism is sparing the Monte-
negrin Government a great deal of trouble, and the
Prince has lost nothing by his generosity. Day by day
up to the present, the last day on which the Prince
accords them horses and escort, these haughty Moslems
have been turning their backs on their native city, carry-
ing with them their wives and children and household
goods. ' Some bands of emigrants have taken their way
through the Zeta Valley and the very centre of Monte-
negro, to Podgoritza and Albania ; others to Gatzko and
the parts of Herzegovina still in Turkish hands — all alike
secure of Montenegrin protection and good faith.

It has been a striking sight to lyatch the long caval-
cades of Turkish fugitives, sometimes as many as sixty at
a time, streaming out of the town. Now and then one of
the little ones would look disconsolate enough, but the
women were muffled in their long white sheets, so that you
could hardly see so much as a nose, and the men were too

LETTER
XIX.

Th( Monte-
negrin
'Vespers:

The Afa-

komeian

emigrants.

196

THE LAST OF TURKISH NIKild.

LETTER
XIX.

The hist of

Turkish

Nikm.

proud to betray any symptom of regret, and were .even
dressed out in their brightest holiday costume.

How dull and dingy look the Montenegrins who
escort them beside these brilliant Orientals ! How strange
and characteristic is this transformation of which I am
at this moment a witness !

There is plenty in the town still to remind us that we
were yesterday in Asia. Grave turbaned Turks still
squat, chibouk in hand, on the vermin-ridden divans of
the cafh. The most picturesque of children tricked out
in all the colours of the rainbow still play about the
filthy streets. You may pick up, if you have a mind to,
the elaborately-carved trunks of Turkish families remov-
ing; you may invest in gorgeous Herzegovinian rugs,
with their rich pervading orange — most creditable me-
morials of the taste and industry of NikSic as she was;
you may purchase, from their Bashi-bazouk owners desi-
rous of realizing, ancient Albanian flintlocks, their stocks
inlaid with mother-of-pearl, their barrels exquisitely
wrought with silverwork by the artists of Prizrend. I
have said that the Mahometans of Nik§i(5 refuse to betray
any emotion. I was wrong. Even the stoicism of the
Moslem can break down at parting with his arms. An
ancient Turk who had covenanted with a friend of mine
to sell his flintlock for thirty florins — it had a date upon
it of three centuries back, and is destined to adoma
museum at Berlin — fairly burst into tears as he concluded
the bargain, exclaiming * My great-grandfather will rise
from his grave to rebuke me ! '

To-day, as I have said, something of this Oriental
atmosphere still lingers around us. There are still some
fifty Mahometan families who have not yet migrated;
but it is probable that the Turks will leave Nik§i(5 almost

ARTISTIC REGRETS!

197

to a man. Montenegrins are already settling here. Some
who resided here before the war are coming back; and
I may mention, as an example of honesty on the part of a
* true-believer/ that a Montenegrin merchant, who at the
beginning of the troubles, two years back, left his wares
to the safe keeping of a Mahometan friend, found them
intact on his return here the other day.

Yes, that old tyrannous dominant caste had its fine
side too I Those turbaned greybeards sitting in their
fur-bordered mantles outside the city gate, awaiting the
signal for their departure, are not wanting at least in
nobleness of expression. In the time it takes me to write
this, their escort has arrived, and they are quitting their
homes for ever under the protection of the Serbian tricolor.
The black-bordered fez, that always seems to mean business,
the dull white dolama or tunic, the dingy brown struka,
the plaid of these Slavonic highlanders, may seem but a
poor exchange for the majestic turban, the brilliant flowing
tasselled fez, the rich brocaded vest, and all those fantasies of
gold and emerald. One is filled with overpowering artistic
regret ! One follows the retreating groups as their silver-
studded arms flash in the sunlight far across the plain ;
but regret ceases as the eye wanders across that rich
champaign so bare of cultivation, or lights, here and there
in the suburbs of the town, on some small garden patch,
where the growth of tobacco, tall stalks of Indian com,
golden figs, and clustering vines attest how rich this land
might become, when no longer trodden down with Turkish
hoof-prints. You feel then that the land has need of these
gaunt, homy-handed highlanders. You tum your eyes
beyond the plain to the naked mountains that enclose it
on every side in their hungry arms, and you realize what
need Montenegro has of the rich plain of Nik§id The

LETTER
XIX.

Artistic
regrets /

198

INTERCHANGE OF AMENITIES.

LETTER
XIX.

Value of
Nik fid to
Monte-
negro.

Good con-
duct of the
conquerors.

Montenegrins reckon that the amount of arable and pasture
land in this fertile *polje/ which exceeds in size any plain
that I can recall in the whole of Dalmatia, and is watered
by two streams, equals that at present to be found in the
whole Principality. Considering the wealth that lies at her
gates, Nik§i(5, with her 6,000 inhabitants, ought to increase
her population tenfold in the course of a generation.
The foundations of a new order of things are ahready
being laid. The first step taken by the Montenegrin
Government has been to extend the telegraph system of
the Principality here ; and a telegraph station is already
open in Nik§i<5 for the first time in her history. Perhaps
one may look forward to the time when a Zeta Valley ling
will connect her with the lowlands of Albania, Skutari,
and the Adriatic, and Nik§i<5 carpets and NikSid tobacco
find a place in the English markets.

The conduct of the Montenegrins here since the cap-
ture has been beyond all praise. Except that on the first
day of occupation a few houses of departed owners were
pointed out to the newcomers by the Turks themselves,
and the effects shared impartially by Turks and Monte-
negrins alike, there has been no plunder, no robbery of
any kind, and no single instance of violence offered to a
true-believer. The Mahometans go and come as freely
as if they were still masters here. They are allowed to
stalk about, carrying whole armouries of swords, knives,
and pistols, and — such, I suppose, is the force of habit —
they are still the only people here who swagger. The
kindly feeling that apparently exists between the con-
querors and conquered is such, that no one would imagine
he was in a captured city. Montenegrins and Nik§i6ans
take wine and raki together, and chat about the events
of the siege in the most friendly manner ; the Turkish

CALUMNIOUS STATEMENTS,

199

townspeople, however, considering it a point pf honour
to conceal the number of the fallen on their side.

The Turks of Nik§i<5, in fact, like those of all this
part of the world, are of the same Slavonic race as their
enemies ; they speak the same mother tongue, as the
Montenegrin warriors with whom they exchange ex-
periences \ many, in fact, are actually Montenegrins by
birth, Nik§i<5 having served as a kind of city of refuge for
outlaws from the Principality. There was not an Osmanli
inhabitant in the town, a few Nizams of the garrison alone
representing the Turk/«r sang.

Though the Mahometans of Niklid have refused to
remain under the Prince's government, the consideration
with which they have been treated has produced a most
favourable impression on them, and will have an important
influence in facilitating Montenegrin conquests in Herze-
govina. It appears that their officers, taking the cue from
the profligate romancers of Stamboul, had spread abroad
the most atrocious stories as to the doom the inhabitants
might expect if they fell into the hands of the Montene-
grins. It was only the other day that a Turkish official
in this part reported (to order) at Constantinople that
the Montenegrins had been butchering young Turkish
girls, and roasting two children alive. This abommable
calumny was telegraphed over Eiu-ope, and has already
been gloated over by the English organs of Turkish
mendacity.

Tales of horror as well founded as the above, naturally
made the NikSidians expect small mercy at the hands of
their conquerors. They were therefore not a little sur-
prised to find their lives and property distinctly more
secure than under their own Government, and to see
their sick and wounded carried at once to the Monte-

LETTER
XIX.

No Osman-
lis at
Nikfiif,

The/or-
bearance of
the Prince
politic.

Cahtmnies
about the
Monte-
negrins
circulated
by Turks.

200

A FRANK CONFESSION!

LETTER
XIX.

A frank
confession I

negrin ambulance tents, where they are being treated at
the present moment by Russian doctors, as carefully as
are the Montenegrins themselves.

' Why,' exclaimed a Turkish bravo, on hearing the
terms granted by Prince Nikola to the citizens, * if we had
been conquerors and you had been in NikSid, we should
have burnt you out and then chopped you in pieces.'
This was frank at any rate, and I commend the remark
to those impartial persons, whose verdict on all ' com-
parative atrocities ' is * six of one and half a dozen of the
other.'

LETTER XX.

NIK§I(5 IN MONTENEGRIN HANDS. (ll.)
THE TOWN AFTER THE SIEGE.

The effects of the b&mbardment. Roman aspects of the town. Proba-
bility that a Roman city existed on Nikii^ Plain. Old Serbian
survivals in NikHd architecture. Tombs of old Serbian heroes. In
the Turkish citadel. The 'black hoW of NikiiS. Use ofbulUts by
garrison productive of fearful lacerated wounds. Reflections on the
Montenegrin Conquest.

NikSid : September 23.

HE town of Nik§i<5 has suffered terribly from the
bombardment ; there is hardly a house that has
not been struck by a shell, and it is not by any
means safe to knock too hard at a friend's door
when paying a visit We have had some tremendous
storms during the last few days, and of nights you might
hear the crash of falling walls and beams. Indeed, the
room of the dirty little place in which I slept was hardly
the safest place in which to find oneself* At the best of
times it has three shell-holes in the wooden ceiling and
the same number of breaches in the walls, and a goodly
portion of the remainder of one of these came down
about my pillow during the night So, on the whole, it
is better for the present to seek tent life in the outskirts
of the town, as I am now doing (my tent being a trophy

LErTRR
XX.

Effects of
the bom-
bardment.

202

THE INNER CITY OF NIKSK^.

LETTER
XX.

Effects of
the bom-
bardment.

The inner
city of
NikUd.

Roman
aspect.

from Suleiman Pasha'^ anny), though this too must have
been a warm comer during the last few weeks. In the
side wall of a magazine opposite my tent door are some
dozen holes and fractures caused by shot and shell.
Houses absolutely burnt and destroyed are numerous
enough, especially beneath the citadel ; but the city walls
and towers, the chief mosque, and the larger magazines
and buildings generally are very little injured, owing to
the small calibre of the artillery at the disposition of the
Montenegrins during most of the siege.

The town is divided into three parts — the citadel, the
inner town within the walls, and the town without the
walls, which is wide-spread and includes the bazaar and
chief streets.

The old inner city is very interesting. It is in general
plan and appearance completely Roman. It is square in
form, except that the higher side, which lies along the
citadel hill, has a more irregular outline, owing to the
rock. At every comer and in the centre of each wall
are towers, square in all cases but one, which, like some
of the Roman towers of Diocletian's palace-city, is
octagonal. The centre tower of each wall has a round
archway beneath which the street runs, and it seems as if
in the original town two main streets intersected each
other at right angles, as they should in a Roman 'Chester.'

A town in general aspect and arrangement more com-
pletely Roman it is impossible to imagine. Not that I
found anything new that I could swear to as actually
dating from Roman times. Although I have enjoyed
the rare privilege of exploring minutely every nook and
cranny of a town till yesterday in Turkish hands, and
consequently almost as inaccessible to antiquarian curio-
sity as if it were in Central Asia instead of a fortnight's

ROMAN ASPECT OF NIKSIC,

203

distance from London, I found no inscription, no un-
doubted Roman moulding, and satisfied myself that much
of the walls was of comparatively recent date. But
whether the foundations of NikSid are actually Roman or
not, whether the present walls follow the exact lines of a
city of the Caesars, in one sense or another Nik§i<5 may
with strict accuracy be described as a Roman city —
Roman, even if only as a most striking representative of
the continuity of Roman art in the Illyria of Slavonic
days. It has indeed been supposed from the * Itinera-
ries * that a Roman city actually existed on or near the
site of NikSid,^ and that a Roman way along the Zeta
Valley connected it with Diocletian's birthplace on the
banks of the Moratcha, while another led over the
mountains to Terbulium, Narona, and so to that more
famous spot where the world-weary Emperor fixed
his retirement and his tomb. Indeed, it is hard to
believe that the rich plain of Nik^id was without a con-
siderable city in the palmiest days of lUyrian history —
the days of the Roman Empire, the days when these now
neglected lands gave emperor after emperor to the
world.

The main city gate, leading into the bazaar street of
the outer town — a broad and spacious street, it is to be
noted, in the Slavonic village style, very unlike the nar-
row antique alleys of the inner city — is of peculiar in-
terest, and may give a date for most of the walls and
towers as they exist in their present state. It has, indeed,
a Turkish inscription above it \ but this means nothing,

there, some of which may be
Roman. If so, the Roman city
did not occupy the present site of

1 There still seems to be a trace
of the Slanum of the Itineraries in
the Slansko 'polje' near Niksid
There are traces of habitation

NikSid.

LETTER
XX.

Roman
aspect of
NikSid,

204

OLD SERBIAN MONUMENTS OF NIK^lC,

LETTER
XX.

Old Serb-
ian carving
above city
gate.

The ancient

Christian

cemetery.

as it was a usual practice of the Ottoman conquerors to
insert inscriptions claiming for their own Sultans and
Beglerbegs the works of earlier Giaour architects. I saw
one such the other day above the gate of Castelnuovo,
but the Turkish stonemason who described in the com-
fortable language of the Ottoman the rearing of the gate
by Sultan Mahomet had forgotten to erase all traces of
the inscription of the earlier Serbian builders i The
Turkish inscription, therefore, proves nothing whatever.
But the fantastic beasts carved on the archway below —
these at least do not lie. They are never the work, let
us be allowed to hope, of those whose duty it was to obey
the precepts of the Koran as touching the portrayal of
living animals. Their peculiar and unmistakable style
proclaims them at once of the same date and by the same
workmen as the similar animals to be seen carved on old
Serbian tombs. They date from before the Turkish con-
quest, or, if they do not, they are at least no more Turkish
than St. Michael's Tower at Oxford is Norman, even
though it date from Norman days.

I should like to linger over the other antiquities of
NikSid — the old Greek church and ancient Serbian ceme-
tery, with its really stately tombs ^ of bygone Vojvodasand
Junaks, dating from the days of the Serbian Empire,
and exhibiting a continuous series of Christian monu-
ments down to the present day, for in Turkish Nik§i<5
there were about forty Christian families. Those tomb-
stones are a mute but eloquent testimony to the degrada-
tion of the rayah under Turkish rule. As they advance
in date towards modem times the Christian art here

1 A represenuUon of one of these old Serbian tombs will be seen
on the cover of this book.

A VISIT TO THE CITADEL.

205

becomes more and more debased ; inscriptions vanish ;
the tombs grow smaller and meaner ; they dwindle finally
into unsightly heaps of turf and unhewn stones.

But it is war-time, and my readers may prefer a
glimpse of the citadel as the Montenegrins found it. I
went over the whole place with Martinovi<5, the present
commandant, an intelligent Montenegrin artillery officer,
who has studied in Austria, speaks German well, under-
stands his business, and personally superintended the
whole bombardment.

The fortress is a long, straggling building, stretching
along the rocky ridge that overlooks the older part of the
town, with two octagonal towers at either end, which, so
far as their general aspect goes, may date from the
Middle Ages ; and a central block of more pretentious
construction, but which could not stand a day against
good modem artillery. From the numerous breaches in
the walls and the supplementary earthworks one got a
good view of the various positions successively occupied
by the Montenegrins ; to the east, the dominating lime-
stone mass of Mount Trebjesa, carried at the beginning
of the siege ; below, the small rocky knoll of Petrova
Glavitza, taken and retaken, and the scene of the last
serious fighting ; to the west, a rocky ridge within pistol-
shot of the fortress and completely commanding both
citadel and city, taken by the Montenegrins on the last
day of the bombardment. In the middle of the citadel
were the traces of an explosion occasioned by the Monte-
negrin artillery from this position, which destroyed most
of the remaining ammunition and hastened the surrender.
The Turks had only twenty-four rounds left when they
gave in ; but it was shot, not powder, of which they stood
in want. Two out of the five powder magazines were

LETTER
XX.

A visit to
the citadel.

206

THE 'BLACK HOLE' OF NIKSli.

A visit to
the citadel.

A Turkish
'black hole,'

LETTER found completely full by the Montenegrins on entering,
and this, with the twenty-one cannon, eight of them
Krupp's and one 25 -pounder, in addition to 4,000 sacks
of com and provisions found in the chief magazine,
afforded most timely supplies to the conquerors.

I did not, however, pass through the citadel without
observing some most disagreeable traces of the fonner
occupants.

One was a hollow in front of one of the towers where
the Turks, to save the trouble of decent interment, had
buried their men in hay.

In the same tower, used as a barrack by the former
garrison, the present commandant said he would show
me the Turkish prison. Ascending some filthy stairs and
entering a dark and even a filthier chamber, I was con-
sidering this abominable enough as a place of detention,
when Martinovid told two of his men to take up part of
the floor. This, I now perceived, was arranged so as to
open, and, the beams being removed, there was disclosed
a dark and loathsome pit, in which those who offended
against the late beneficent masters of Niksid were, accord-
ing to ancient usage, immured ! It was hardly to be ex-
pected that the owners of dungeons like this should be
squeamish as to the obligations of international law.
Scattered about in the citadel magazines you may pick up
scores of bullets, the use of which sets those who employ
them on a level with the South Sea savages who still
make use of poisoned arrows in their warfare. These
bullets have a small plug of wood imbedded in their
cones, which on striking a human body splits up the
middle and produces a fearful lacerated wound, which in
nearly all cases results in gangrene.

Who, after sights like these, can wish to see the tat-

Diabolical
bullets used
by the
garrison.

REFLECTIONS ON MONTENEGRIN CONQUEST,

207

tered cross of Montenegro that floats to-day over Nik§i<5
citadel again replaced by a Turkish crescent?

The capture and occupation of Nik§i<5 may seem to
some a small matter compared with the mighty events
that are working out their course beneath the shadows of
the Balkans ; but the transformation that I have seen
perfected here before my eyes is a microcosm of that
greater Revolution whose tocsin is already sounding to
the Black Sea and the -^gean. Magnus db tntegro
scBciorum nascitur ordo. Centuries hence half Europe
will look back to that Revolution as the greatest since the
fall of the Eastern Empire.

LETTER
XX.

Reflections
on Monte-
negrin

conquest.

CAMPAIGN

IN HKRZE-

GOVINA.

NOTE.

THE MONTENEGRIN CAMPAIGN IN HERZEGOVINA.

As a sequel to the fall of NikSid — although, as I have already stated,
it was never my intention in this work to touch largely on events of
a purely military character — I venture to subjoin a short summary
of the subsequent operations of the Montenegrins on the side of
Herzegovina, which I wrote at NikSid on September 30th, from
materials supplied me by officers who actually took part in it.

* On the fall of NikSid it was generally believed at head-quarters,
even amongst those most conversant with the intentions of Prince
Nikola, that the Montenegrin forces, amounting to 8, 500 men, till
then engaged in the siege operations, would be marched in the
direction of Jezero, where Hafiz Pasha was held in check by the
battalions under Vojvodas Lazar Socida and Peiovi<5; and that,
having given a good account of the 10,000 Bosnian Turks there
encamped, the Prince's army would wind up the campaign by
the capture of KolaSine, and retire to winter quarters in time to avoid
the autunm rains.

* On the evening of the nth general orders were issued to prepare
to march on the following morning. Every one in camp believed
that a movement to the east, in the direction of Jezero and Ko-
laSine, had been decided on, and it was not till the tents were stnick
that the actual destination was divulged. Then, to the surprise of
all, the order was given to turn westwards, and take the roadtoBilekia.

Whether this expedition was based on real strat^cal conside-
rations (Bilekia, it must be remembered, commands the road from
the important city of Trebinje to the Duga Pass), or whether it had
an object of a more political character, or whether, again, it was
a mere freak of the Prince's, who prides himself on his sudden

THE CAMPAIGN IN HERZEGOVINA,

20^

resolves, and is altogether of too Oriental a cast not to be influenced
at times by personal caprices, — the precise object is difficult to de-
termine, being only known to the Prince himself. So much, how-
ever, I have sufficient authority for saying, that the mo'^e was
at least partially due to a desire on the Prince's part to elicit
more definite declarations on the part of the Austrian Government,
and to fix within more precise limits the sphere of probably impend-
ing Austrian action. In a word, the Prince wanted to know for
certain whether he might acquire the ancient city of Trebinje, or
whether that city, distant only three hours from the Dalmatian -
frontier and five from Ragusa, came within the scope of the an-
nexationist views of the military party at Vienna.

The course ultimately pursued by the Prince Nikola demonstrates
pretty clearly the character of the representations made to him by
the Austrian military cUtachiy who, in conjunction with the Russian,
was during this time in constant conference with him. Nikola took
Bilekia, but though a good road lay open to him to Trebinje, lying
completely at his mercy five hours to the east, he turned due north
to take the comparatively unimportant Turkish fortresses of Gatzko
and Goransko.

A two days' march fh)m Nik§i<5 brought the Montenegrins be-
fore Bilekia, which is a small town of about 150 houses, commanded
and defended by a ' kula' and a large fortress, enclosing various maga-
zines. The large artillery which the Montenegrins have recently
obtained from Russia sufficed the Vojvoda in command, Verbitza,
to capture the 'kida' on the second day, and the two large cannon
that the Montenegrins had taken with them being advanced to the
captured position, and earthworks being thrown up there during
the night, the citadel itself capitulated on the third day. This
speedy capture of a fortress which, according to competent military
critics, could have held out for six months against any forces the
Principality could have brought to bear against it, was the first fruits
of the wise and conciliatory terms granted by Prince Nikola to
NikSid

In the old days, when Montenegrins and Turks gave no quarter
on either side, when the capture of a town was followed by the
massacre of its inhabitants, the besieged on either side fought with
desperation, as for dear life. But the garrison of Bilekia, among

CAMPAIGN
IN HERZE-
GOVINA.

The objec-
tive of the
Prince's
movetneni.

Austrian
suscepti-
bilities.

Capture of
Bilekia.

2IO

THE CAMPAIGN- IN HERZEGOVINA,

CAMPAIGN
IN HERZE-
GOVINA.

Severe
penalty in-
dicted on
the inhabi-
tants.

Paternal
government
in Monte-
negro!

Shock of
, earthquake.

whom were Turkish soldiers who had been allowed to march out
of NikSid arms in hand, had no such motives to prolong resistance.
They only demanded and accepted honourable terms, and were
allowed to march off, to the number of 42b regulars and 6 officers,
retaining their arms like the garrison of Nik^id. The same gene-
rous policy has now borne even more conspicuous fruit in the easy
capture, one after the other, of the almost impregnable Turkish
fortresses in the Duga Pass.

The inhabitants of Bilekia, however, met with a very different
treatment from that which the NikSi(5ians had received. They had
incurred the implacable vengeance of the Montenegrins for having
profited by the defeat at Kristatz to cut off stray divisions of the
retreating Czemc^ortzi, to whom they showed no quarter, and
having further carried off a convoy of provisions.

The penalty now inflicted by the Prince's orders was severe.
All the Turkish houses in Bilekia were burnt to the ground, and the
fortress and magazines shared the same fate ; three captured cannon,
2,000 sacks of wheat, and relatively enormous stores of other pro-
visions being first removed. The destruction of private property
was, however, tempered with mercy. The Mahometan inhabitants
of Bilekia were allowed before the destruction of their houses to
remove all their moveable property. All plundering was so abso-
lutely prohibited that in the case of a single detected culprit the
Prince inflicted personal chastisement with his own hands. One of the
Vojvodas had, it seems, purchased some stolen articles from one of
his troop ; the Prince, getting wind of it, taxed his officer with the
offence, and the Montenegrin answering in the free and easy manner
of his race, His Highness flew into a passion, and drubbed him
then and there with his stick in the presence of his troops. Such is
paternal government in Montenegro I

From Bilekia, as I have already said, the army turned north a
two days' march to the plateau of Gatzko, there being little to
record on the way except that at Plana, at seven on the evening of
the 1 7th, a shock of earthquake travelling in a south-eastern di-
rection was felt by all in camp, and was inomediately succeeded by a
tremendous storm. On the i8th head-quarters were fixed at Kiistatz,
which commands the Gatzko plain. On the evening of the 19th a
small di dsion detached for that purpose captured the fort of Zlo-

THE CAMPAIGN IN HERZEGOVINA,

211

stup, the northernmost key of the Duga Pass. A detachment of
two battalions had been already operating on this important pass
from the side of NikSid, and had captured in succession the Turkish
strongholds of Presieka, Hodjina Poljana, Nosren, and Smenderov,
including in all about 400 prisoners and immense quantities of stores.
By the capture of Zlostup, the Duga Pass, which is the tactical key of
the whole of North-eastern Herzegovina, was completely cleared of
Turks, and the advantage gained for the Montenegrins for any future
operations in Central Herzegovina can hardly be over-estimated.
The Duga Pass is, of its kind, unique in Europe. It is not, in-
deed, a smooth path between overhanging precipices, but a fairly
broad succession of rocky undulations, hemmed on either side by
mountain walls from i,cxx) ft. to 1,800 ft. above the pass, and cul-
minating in still loftier mountain citadels, on which the Turks have
reared forts almost inaccessible to artillery.

On the 21 st, the way to Nik5i<5 through the Duga Pass being
n^w in Montenegrin hands, and the autumn rains having begun
with more than usual violence, the Prince resolved to transfer his
head-quarters to Nik5i<5, whither he arrived from Presieka the same
day, for the first time in his life enjojdng the prospect of the magni-
ficent Duga defile. The Prince took with him only a single bat-
talion, leaving six-and-a-half battalions to besiege the important
Turkish town and stronghold of Metokia (sometimes known, from
the surrounding plain, as the town of Gatzko), and despatching an-
other four battalions under Vojvoda Vukoti<5 to capture the Turkish
fortress and magazines of Goransko. This was successfully accom-
plished on the 26th, and a garrison of 300, three cannon, and very
large quantities of stores have thus fallen into the Montenegrin
hands.

While the above operations were being carried out by the
Prince's main army to the north and west of Nik§i<5, a most
brilliant success was being won by the eastern division, under Voj-
vodas Lazar Soci6i and Peiovid Having been reinforced by two
battalions from before Nik§id, the forces at the disposal of Vojvoda
Socida amounted in all to eight battalions, or about 5,000 men,
with which he had to hold in check Hafiz Pasha, who with about
10,000 troops, largely irregulars drawn from Bosnia and Herzego-
vina, had crossed the Tara river, and having entered the district of

P 2

CAMPAIGN
IN HERZE-
GOVINA.

Capture of
the strong-
holds in the
Duga Pass,

Return of
Prince
Nikola to

Capture of
Goransko.

212

THE CAMPAIGN IN HERZEGOVINA,

CAMPAIGN

IN HERZE-

QOVINA.

Battle of
yezero.

Blunders
of Hafiz
Pasha,

Turkish
left routed.

Jezero, had already ravaged parts of Herzegovina in Monten^;rin
possession, and was threatening an invasion of the north-eastern
cantons of the Principality.

It was by Jezero that the two armies came into conflict with one
another. The Turks, with their back to the Tara river, were posted
on the edge of a rocky plateau which juts forward in three promon-
tories overlooking a small plain, if so can be called a depression
broken by a hundred rocky knolls and strewn with blocks of lime-
stone, which made advance over such ground almost an impossi-
bility to any but mountaineers.

The three divisions of the Turkish forces, the centre and two
wings, were posted respectively on the three promontories indicated,
and faced beyond the narrow plain nothing but a wall of mountain
so steep that even the Montenegrins could not attack on this side.

This was the main blunder committed by the Turkish com-
mander — his army was posted facing nothing. But the blundering
of Hafiz Pasha did not end here. The rocky knoll on which he had
stationed his centre was at least an hour in the rear of any possible
line of battle ; the position held by his right wing was good in itself,
but cut off by an intervening ravine from all co-operation with the
centre. The point at which the Monten^jins must debouch, if
desirous of attacking, lay on the left of Hafiz Pasha's position. It
was therefore certain that his left wing must bear the brunt of the
action, and at least half his forces should have been concentrated on
this side, but instead of this the left Turkish wing was the weaker.

At 9.30 a.m. on September 12 the Montenegrins advanced to
the attack along a mountain saddle-path that conducted them to
Hafiz's left, and which, indeed, was the only avenue of attack open
to them. The commander, Socida, at once perceived the errors of
his adversary, and concentrated* his whole attack on the Turkish
left, which was quickly turned, almost surrounded, and hurled back
in confusion.

This Turkish division was already routed when Hafiz perceived
his blunder and ordered the centre to advance to the relief of his
left.

But it was already too late. The centre, struggling forward
among the rocks, got inextricably entangled with the division which
was now hurled back upon them. Fighting among the limestone

THE CAMPAIGN IN HERZEGOVINA,

213

boulders in confused order, the mingled left and centre of Hafiz
became an easy prey to the sure-footed mountaineers who now
swept down upon them. By midday the whole Turkish force was
in full retreat, and the Montenegrins found 480 dead and wounded
on the field of battle, to which must be added the number of bodies
undetected amidst the rocks and gullies, what wounded the Turks
carried with them, 32 prisoners, two flags, and large convoys of
horses, cattle, and provisions. The Montenegrin loss was not
more than 13 killed and 23 wounded.

Very little pains, however, seem to have been taken to follow
up this success. Hafiz Pasha, though his rearguard and three can-
non were threatened for some days, finally succeeded in withdrawing
his forces beyond the Tara.

The battle of Jezero was signalized on the part of the Montene-
grins by a splendid instance of individual valour which certainly
deserves chronicling. A Montenegrin of the tribe of Piperi, Luka
Philipov by name, had distinguished himself at the battle of Vucidol
by taking Osman Pasha alive and carrying him bodily to Prince
Nikola, who presented the gallant fellow with 500 ducats for his
prize, and jestingly bade him bear him another Turk in the same
£ashion. Now for a Montenegrin to be told by *the Master' — the
* Gospodar,' as the Prince is generally called here — to do a thing is
for him to do it or die. Accordingly, our hero of Piperi being pre-
sent at the battle of Jezero, and mindful of *the Master's* order,
seized the moment of attack to rush into the Turkish lines, hug a
true-believer round the waist in a bear-like embrace, and lug him,
off bodily through flashing arms and leaden storm, disarming him
by the way.

To carry his prize safely to the rear the Montenegrin made
a slight ditour^ but he had not got half way to the . Montenegrin
position to which he was making when a bullet struck him, passing
through both thigh-bones, and letting go his captive he fell heavily
to the ground.

The Turk, with a shout of triumph, sprang upon his fallen cap-
tor, but despite the agony in which he lay the Black Mountaineer
retained strength of body and firmness of mind sufficient for the
occasion. He laid one heavy hand upon the Turk, who had sprung
at his throat, and with the other pointed his revolver at his adver-

CAMPAIGN
IN HERZE-
GOVINA.

Rout of
Hafiz
Pasha at
Jezero,

A Monte-
negrin
hero.

214

THE CAMPAIGN IN HERZEGOVINA.

CAMPAIGN
IN HERZE-
GOVINA.

Results of
the cam-
paign
summed up.

Would the
Prince
march on
Mostar f

sary's head, quietly remarking, * Now then, Turk, if you don't want
to be bloym into another world, just lift me on to your back. And
now, my fine horse,' as the cowed and astonished Turk complied,
* just trot me over to my friends out there I ' Kismet being obviously
against him, our Moslem obeyed his driver, and stumbled on over
the rocks groaning under the weight of the burly Montenegrin, to
where the men of Piperi stood marvelling at the approach of what
they believed to be a Turkish Goliath, ten feet tall ! But the war-
riors burst into a roar of laughter when, on the apparition approach-
ing nearer, they perceived a Turk bearing, as it appeared, in the
most humane manner, their wounded Luka to the lines. My readers
will be glad to learn that Luka Philipov is recovering from his
wound. He was almost senseless when his captive delivered him to
his friends.

In the battle of Jezero and the ensuing operations, which ended
in the withdrawal of Hafiz Pasha beyond the Tara, the Turkish
losses have been not less than i,ooo men. From every point of
view the recent operations of the Montenegrins in Herzegovina have
been most successful, and the ag^egate gains to the Principality
very considerable. To sum up the results of the last three weeks*
campaign, including the capture of NikSid, the Monten^^ns have
gained one pitched battle against forces double their own ; they have
taken two important towns, eight fortresses, twenty-seven cannon,
supplies of food and military stores sufficient to support the whole
Principality for say half a year ; in NikSid alone 10,000 horse-loads
of provisions were captured ; they have put about 1,500 Turks Aors
de combat and taken 3,000 prisoners ; they hold in their own occu-
pation one third of Herzegovina, and possess the keys of half that
province ; and all this with infinitesimal losses to themselves. The
road to Mostar, the capital of the Herzegovina, lies open.

Would the Prince march there ? This has been the question of
the last few days. His Highness himself, elated by his recent
conquests, was desirous of doing so, but his great political tact
rendered him averse to acting without the consent of the Austrian
Government. Very animated negotiations have been carried on on
this subject, but the Prince's desire has met with a most resolute
veto on the part of the Austrian Government. Add to this that
the strenuous efforts made by the Turks to collect troops in Bosnia

THE CAMPAIGN IN HERZEGOVINA,

215

sufficient to check the Montenegrin advance made it possible that
by the time the Prince's troops arrived before Mostar the coast
might not be so clear, that the autumn rains are already down upon
us with a vengeance, and that winter is already closing in among
the Herzegovinian Alps, and it will be seen that all prudential
considerations conspired with the recommendations of diplomatists.

In a council of war held September 28 it was decided to close
the campaign in the Herzegovina, and, maintaining a strictly defen-
sive attitude on this side, to transfer active hostilities to the milder
r^on of the Mora&i Valley and the Albanian littoral, where even a
winter campaign is possible. The three chief fortresses to be re-
duced in the Mora^a Valley are Spui and the towns of Podgoritza
and Zabljak. The territory to be acquired is at least as valuable to
Montenegro as the plain of NikSid ; it is not only fertile and well
watered, but it commands access to a large part of the coast of the
lake of Skutari, with its prolific fisheries ; while its potential im-
portance is best shown by the fact that in ancient days this district
supported the great city of Dioclea, according to .one account the
birthplace and name-giver of Diocletian. In early Serbian days this
favoured champaign between lake and mountains had not lost its
importance. It was the very kernel of the renowned Principality
of Zenta, of which Montenegro 'is the modem representative, and
gave Emperors to the Serbs, as it had done before to the Romany.

The importance of the narrow strip of sea-coast lying between
the lake of Skutari and the Adriatic, and extending from the Austrian
frontier to the river Bojana, is of equal importance to the Princi-
pality, as giving it access to the sea, from which it has hitherto been
cut off by European diplomacy. The possession of the town and
port of Antivari and the free navigation of the river Bojana are vital
questions for Montenegro.

CAMPAIGN
IN HERZE-
GOVINA.

Operations
transferred
to the
Albanian
side.

LETTER XXI.

THE HOPE OF BOSNIA : MISS IRBY AND MISS JOHNSTON'S

CHILDREN.

LETTER Terrible desHtution of the Bosnian refugees on the Croatian and Sla-
XXI. vonian border. Children turned idiots through want and misery.

Death-rate among the refugees. Fifty-two thousand starved to death
on Christian soil. Miss Irby and Miss yohnston's schools for ike
refugee children. The Serbian * Preparandija,* A visit to the
refugee schools. Quickness of the children. Curious uniformity of
type among them — a Slavonic characteristic. The true hope of
Bosnia.

Pakratz, Slavonia : November 15.

[O Star of hope rises above the political horizon
of unhappy Bosnia. The insurrection still drags
on ; there are camps still on Mounts Kossaratz
and Germetz, and in the district which I once
described as * Free Bosnia.' But the rigour of an Alpine
winter is closing on us, and the bulk of the Christian popu-
lation of Bosnia are still hopeless refugees beyond the
borders of the province. I have been visiting these
wretched colonies lately at various spots along the Croa-
tian and Slavonian frontiers, and I find the destitution
almost as great as I have already described it to be
among the limestone peaks of Dalmatia.

My readers must weary of the monotonous tale.

CHILDREN TURNED IDIOTS THROUGH SUFFERING, 217

Indeed, how can it be adequately told ? After all, it is
only by individual cases of wretchedness that our hearts
are really touched. A man may pity the misfortunes of
a single family and yet be almost callous to a tale of
national disaster. That is, perhaps, partly why, looking
back at those wan, haggard crowds, one's mind's eye
does not dwell upon the many, but rather here and
there on some group or image standing forth in egregious
pathos.

I can still see an aged Bosnian hag, shivering in the
mud of a Slavonian village as she stands clutching with
her skeleton fingers, two —how can one name them ? —
it would be mockery to call them children ! — two de-
formed and half-clad punies, who are clinging to her
rags and huddling piteously to her side — as if for warmth !
* Their mother is dead,* the old woman answered me, * their
father went away with the Ustashi (the insurgents), and
no one knows where he is. Most likely the Turks have
killed him.' I turned to the little creatures themselves —
What were their names? How old were they? Could
they remember where their homes were in Bosnia ? But
they only gaped vacantly at the stranger, and it hardly
needed to look into their lack-lustre eyes to know why
they did not speak. — It was blank, hopeless idiotcy that
alone stared forth ! Everything that had ever raised them
above the level of a brute had been scared and starved
and frozen out of them !

* They don't speak,' was all she said, and that^ perhaps,
was a disadvantage — but her old eyes spared her from
knowing more— she did not even seem to realize that
there was anything hideous to recoil from. After all, they
were her property ; she had found the waifs, and taken
to them — ^and what else had she in the world to care

LETTER
XXI.

A misera-
ble group.

DEATH-RATE AMONG BOSNIAN REFUGEES.

A quarter
of a million
fugitives.

Mortality
among
Bosnian
refugees.

for? So she fondled the two diminutive monstrosities
that knew her not from a mother, and pushed back the
tangled mat of hair from their dull brows.

Repulsive certainly the group to artistic eyes ! — yet
worthier the pitying contemplation of that Christendom
on whose soil they stood than many and many a simper-
ing Madonna !

If any one now cares to work out a multiplication sum
in human misery, here are a few figures. The total
number of refugees has never fallen much below a quarter
of a million, the decrease caused by death having been
constantly supplied by new emigrations. Of these, the
number in Austro-Hungary, scattered along the whole
Slavonian, Croatian, and Dalmatian frontiers, is under-
estimated by the authorities at 115,000. The official
register of tnose in Montenegro and the part of
Herzegovina now in Montenegrin hands, sets them down
at 90,000 ; but this, I confess, I consider to be an over-
statement On the borders of Servia there are about
40,000.

As to the amount of mortality among them since
their arrival (the first comers have been here two full
years), it is difficult to obtain exact returns. The
death-rate has varied considerably, as might be expected,
in the different districts. Those who have sought refiige
in the rich Save valley have fared better than those amidst
the Dalmatian peaks ; and those who have found them-
selves amongst a * Serb * or Orthodox Greek population
have been better aided and sheltered by the inhabitants
of the country than those whose new neighbours have
belonged to the antagonistic creed of Rome. From
inquiries made in Slavonia and Croatia, I estimate the
mortality among the fugitives since their ^rival at

FIFTY-TWO THOUSAND STARVED.

\ 219

--r -

something like 22 per cent on that part of the frontier,
the richest of all Near Knin, on the worst part of the
Dalmatian frontier, Miss Irby considers the proportion of
deaths to be nearer 50 than 30 per cent ; the native
committees estimate it at 50. At one spot on the
Bosnian-Dalmatian frontier — the miserable glen of Kamen,
whifch I have already described, and where I have
obtained accurate data, — the death-rate for the six months
from the beginning of winter last, up to midsummer, had
reached the terrible proportion of 40 per cent In
Montenegro and Serbia it is still more difficult to obtain
trustworthy returns, but the refugees have certainly not
fared better there than on Austro- Hungarian soil From
these calculations it results that 25 per cent is a very mode-
rate estimate of the average death-rate among the refugees
since their arrival; and even this wouldgive a total of 62,000
deaths. Deducting now 10,000 as the death-rate under
normal circumstances during the same period, it will be
seen that some 52,000 souls have succumbed on Christian
soil to hunger and exposure and their attendant diseases.
Those who have seen, as I have, new cemeteries in the
wilderness where two years ago not a soul existed will
hardly think this number an exaggeration. I believe it
to be far below the mark.

Private charity and individual exertion might well recoil
where an Empire and Principalities have failed ; and yet
I wish that some of my readers who think such efforts
hopeless, could have visited, as I have had the privilege
of doing lately, the schools which the two English ladies,
Miss A. P. Irby and Miss Johnston, have been founding
for the refugee children. After seeing every moral
mutilation that centuries of tyranny could inflict, ag-
gravated and added to by the miseries of such an exile.

XXI.

Mortality
among
Bosnian
refugees.

i 'ifty-two
ti '4>usand
Si arved on
C hristian
soil.

Miss Irby
and Miss
yohnstqns
refugee
schools.

220 /

THE 'preparandija:

The Serb-
ian * Pre-

parandija '
at Pakratz,

who can go away without a feeling of despair for the
present generation of refugee Bosnia ? Who might not
be tempted to doubt whether a future still existed for
these degraded pariahs ? But the scene of the English
ladies' labours is indeed an oasis in the lengthening waste
of human misery. Pakratz, their head-quarters, is a
friendly little town in the Slavonian mountains, and has
been admirably chosen as a centre to work from, since
here, under the superintendence of Professor Josid, is
established the training school for schoolmasters of the
Serbs of Austro-Hungary, called the * Preparandija.'

This Preparandija is an excellent institution, and it
might even afford a subject for reflection to some of our
smart writers, whose cue it is at present to * write down '
the Serbs and other Slav rabble, that training colleges to
teach the art of teaching should exist among them. I
went over the Preparandija with Professor Josid, who
examined his class in my presence. He put a series of
questions to his pupils concerning the art of teaching, the
proper arrangement of a school, and so forth. It was
amusing enough to see one of the future schoolmasters
made to act the pedagogue while all the others trans-
formed themselves into a class of children, and went
through their pothooks and spelling.

One feature in the teaching struck me especially.
When a child has made a mistake in his work he is to be
made to find it out himself, with the least possible help
from the schoolmaster. This pedagogic part is of course
only one of the subjects taught in the college, the various
masters having to pass in physiology, chemistry, geography,
music, and so forth ; but it is certainly not the least
valuable. Who would turn untrained nurses into a
hospital? And yet in how many English schools are

BEGINNING OF MISS IRBTS SCHOOLS,

221

masters untrained in the * art of teaching ' let loose to
experiment on the youthful corpora vilia \

In aiding Miss Irb/s educational efforts among the
Bosniacs the Preparandija has been invaluable. The
excellent professors gave up the whole of their last vacation
to teaching the masters that Miss Irby had found for her
refugee schools, and very well they have taught them.
Of course, the first difficulty that the ladies had to contend
with was, how to get Bosniacs willing or in any way
capable to be masters. Miss Irby may say in her own
words how she and her fellow-labourer managed to find
the first : —

'It was some weeks,' she writes, ' before we could find a
teacher. The beginning was at length made in the following
manner : — We were conversing with a Bosnian insurgent,
one of those who had been living for some years in exile in
Serbia, and had crossed the frontier into his own country at
the beginning of the rising last August. He had now come
over into Austria, most probably in order to recruit his
band among his friends and relations. He was a fine tall
man with a very striking countenance, and what the old
Serbian song describes as the " glad, bright eye of heroes."
While we were talking an old man came up and joined us.
He was dressed like a Grenzer or Austrian borderer, in
sheepskin jacket, military great coat, and blue trousers. " He
is one of us," said the Bosnian, " and the very best among us
alL" After the unsuccessful rising in 1858 he settled in
Slavonia, acquired land, built a hut, and was living with his
children and grandchildren on the produce of his few cattle
and crops. In reply to our inquiry about the Bosnian
fugitives in his village, he told us that he had living in his
hut a poor crippled young man who was absolutely destitute,
and who did not receive the Austrian Government allowance
because he had been assigned to a distant Catholic village

LETTER
XXI.

First be-
ginning of
Miss Irby
and Miss
yohnstons
schools.

222 TPVO THOUSAND CHILDREN FED AND TA UGHT,

LfiTTER
XXI.

Be^nning
ofMiss Irby
and Miss
Johnston's
schools for
the refugee
children.

2,ooo chil-.
drenfed '
and taught)

where he could not bear to go. The Austrian Government,

with good reason, objected to the immense crowding of the

Bosnian fugitives in the district of Pakratz, and was anxious

to equalize their distribution along the frontier. " This poor

cripple," said the old man, ** was very clever, and had been a

schoolmaster in Bosnia." Hoping that he would prove to be

the very person we were seeking, we sent for him to come to us

the next day. A more desponding, haggard-looking object I

scarcely ever saw. We made him write before us, and read

a Serbian psalm. He read with a feeling and expression

rare in Bosnia ; and we were struck with his singularly

Intellectual development of forehead. The next day we

drove to the village of Kukunjevatz, where we heard it would

be possible to obtain the old deserted school-house. By the

courtesy of the Knez, or elder of the village, the arrangement

was immediately made, the Knez offering to take the young

schoolmaster into his house until a sleeping-place in the

dilapidated building could be repaired. In two or three

days the school was opened (March 6). The poor young

man has displayed unusual skill and energy ; the change in

his appearance, now that he is earning his own bread in his

own vocation, is very remarkable. He has already taught

some of the elder boys to read, and they have received

Serbian Testaments as a reward.'

Since this first beginning, in March 1876, the ladies
have worked with such energy and success that they have
now established 22 day schools ; they have 23 school-
masters" and one schoolmistress, and very nearly 2,000
refugee children in their schools. The children are fed
as well as taught ; and Miss Irby has now set some of
the elder lads, who have already learned to read and write,
in the way of making their living by apprenticing them
to various trades. I saw nine such apprentices at Pakratz,
all doing very well ; one apprenticed to a baker, another
to a tailor, others to bootmakers, and so forth. One of

A VISIT TO THE REFUGEE SCHOOLS.

223

these bootmakers could make four pairs of opankas^ or
native sandals, in a day. Another scholar, a young
insurgent, who so longed to learn to read and write that
he had submitted to go to school with the children, now
earns fifteen florins a month as a swineherd. He lives in
the forest, but he has managed to keep up his literary
tastes, having taken with him quite a small library, some
books of * Piesme ' or Serbian heroic lays, a Testament,
and writing materials * to improve his hand' Yet in this
case, as in the others, education seems to have given a
greater capacity for the business of life ; so much so, that
the lad's master declared the other day that * there never
was such a good swineherd.'

In company with the English ladies — to whom 30
miles in a springless cart is nothing of a day's journey —
and Professor Josid, I visited several of the schools in
the Slavonian villages, and was thoroughly initiated into
their working. Nothing struck me more than the amount
of civilization and refinement that had been infiised into'
the masters ; there was none of the dazed, stupid look
of the raw Bosnian rayah. It was quite a pleasure to
watch the schoolmaster at Pakratz : teaching the children
was so evidently a labour of love. At the end of school
several of the little ones went up to him and whispered
their small confidences in his ear. The children them-
. selves did not seem a bit in a hurry for the end of school,
though they might have been, for liberal hunches of bread
made in Pakratz by one of the Bosnian apprentices were
then distributed to them. Quite rosy many of them
looked — a cheerful contrast to what I have seen. Each
school was provided with a blackboard, there were globes
to teach geography with, and the walls were bright with
English coloured prints of New Testament subjects.

LETTER
XXI.

A visit to
the refuge
schools.

224

THE REFUGEE SCHOOL-CHILDREN',

LETTER
XXI.

The refugee
school-chil-
dren^

In several of the schools Professor Josi<5 examined
the children before me to see how they were being taught.
The children passed very creditably in spelling, reading,
writing, and simple arithmetic. The handwriting of one
lad, who wrote on the blackboard at his Bosnian master's
dictation, * Heaven helps those who help themselves,' was
quite a specimen of caligraphy. It was very pleasant to
hear them repeat some of the New Testament parables,
using their own language. In the parable of the Good
Samaritan, for instance, the thieves were * Haidutchi '
(Haiduks), the Bosnian and South Slavonic brigands;
the Levite was a * parroch,' the Bosnian equivalent for
* parson/ *What was St. Paul before his conversion?'
asked the Professor. * A Pandour,' answered the child
promptly, — the Pandour being a kind of frontier Zaptieh
in Bosnia. Another boy was asked what was the meaning
of * neighbour ' in the parable.

* Supposing, now, you were to see anyone in difficulties,
would you refuse to help him because he wasn't a true
Serb, but an unbelieving Jew, or a Magyar, or a Turk?'

* Not a Turk ! ' said the lad, decisively.

* Oh yes, even if he was a Turk,' said another milder
child.

At Novatz some of the children were asked why
they had left Bosnia. * Because the Turks robbed
father and beat us,' answered one. And why did
the Turks do that? After some consideration, the lad
replied, ' Because it was their empire.' * No,' broke in
another little fellow impetuously — * not their land ; it is
our land ! ' All the children clapped their hands at this
answer.

Nothing took my fancy more than the spirit with
which the children repeated parts of their national heroic

DRAMATIC SENSE AMONG BOSNIAN CHILDREN.

225

lays that they had learned by heart I think that they had
been told to fold their arms while reciting, but one lad,
when he came to a thrilling passage in the lay of Kossovo,
unlocked his arms, and, throwing one hand behind him,
pointed, with an energy of gesticulation all the more
impressive from his previous calmness, at some imaginary
actor m that national tragedy. It was quite natural : he
so obviously had the hero before his eyes ; but I doubt if
an English child would have done the same — ^just as I
doubt whether any pure-blooded Anglo-Saxon is capable
of fully understanding a Slav. Their imagination, their
powers of realizing what is not patent to the eye — of
converting ideas into realities — are something quite
abnormal among European peoples.

The quickness with which the refugee children learn
astonishes every one. * I don't know how it is,' said a
native of Pakratz to me, ' but these Bosnian children learn
twice as quickly as ours.' Everjrwhere I find the same.
It is just the same in Miss Irby's schools near Knin, on
the Dalmatian frontier of Bosnia ; just the same among
our little Herzegovinians in the Ragusan schools for
which Mr. E. A. Freeman and Mr. W. J. Stillman have
done so much. The children in Miss Irb/s schools,
from the age of six upwards, learn to read and write in
the astonishingly short space of three months. They are
helped, no doubt, in this particular by possessing a
phonetic system of spelling, and the admirable Cyrillian
alphabet ; perhaps if they had spblling such as ours to
learn, with all their quickness many of them would have
to return to Bosnia without being able to read. There
is a hungering and thirsting after knowledge among these
little ones which seems to me quite pathetic ! Packed
together in their little school-rooms one could fancy them

LETTER
XXI.

Dramatic
sense among
Bosnian
children.

ThHr
quickness.

226

THE REFUGEE CHILDREN,

LETTER
XXI.

The refugee
children.

to be little birds waiting to be fed ! I can imagine no
more melancholy prospect than that these helpless, hungry
fledgelings should be turned adrift to pass too many of
them — as thousands of the refugee children have passed
already — to the outer darkness of death, or, worse still,
unreason. Yet that is what must happen unless fresh
help comes from England ; for, including the housing,
feeding, and clothing of 72 orphans that those kind
ladies have on their hands. Miss Irby and Miss
Johnston incur an average expense of ^£^300 a month in
order to keep up their schools.

Nobody who has seen them, I feel sure, can fail to
love these Bosnian children. To whatever part of the
country they belong, at whatever spot on the long frontiers
you meet them, they are still the same ; there is the same
quiet, homely expression ; there are the same neat little
plaits that recall old German pictures ; the same quaint
variations in the colour of the hair — it is a fact, that
many of the children here have positively piebald pates —
* goldfen hairs amidst the brown,' — such as I certainly have
not remarked anywhere else. And then too there are the
same Serbian eyes, large and beautiful, sometimes a light
hazel, which, in a sidelight, take a transparent lilac hue ;
sometimes, and perhaps oflener, a pale sapphire. Pakratz
is hundreds of miles distant from Ragusa, yet these are the
same faces that one remembers among the little Herze-
govinians there ; they might all belong to the same

family —

' Facies non omnibus una ;
Nee diversa tamen, qualem decet esse sororum.'

And this striking uniformity of type is but the external
counterpart of an uniformity of character and temperament

UNIFORMITY OF TYPE AMONG THEM,

227

not less remarkable. The children behave here just as
they behave at Ragusa ; they never seem to quarrel there
or here ; there and here they have just the same capacity
to learn ; there and here each behaves just as his fellows,
each repeats the same gestures. Individuality is at a
minimum, but this sameness of character must naturally
be of great aid to those who have to lead them. In an
average English school there would be a much greater
variety of type, physical, moral, and intellectual Suppose
the master is a pure-blooded Anglo-Saxon, he may have
to deal with scholars whose blood is partly Celtic or
partly Norman, or partly French, or of other nationalities.
What rules of management can he apply to all ? What
universal key can he find to fit their character? He
leams by painful experience that one child may starve
on what is intellectual meat to another. But the Bosnian
schoolmaster has to deal with a less mixed breed ; when
he understands how to teach one child he understands
how to teach all. This sameness of type is really as true
among the adults as among the children, and seems to
me to have important political and social bearings in all
South Slavonic lands, into which I cannot now enter, but
which may, perhaps, be summed up as a capacity of
being drilled.

I close this letter a long way off from the scene of
Miss Irby and Miss Johnston's labours, but I wish my
readers could catch a glimpse of the contrasts that return
to me ! There is a vision of girls who are hags before
they are women \ of human pigmies distorted by
exposure and disease, and wasted away by himger,
staring the blank, stupid stare of idiotcy — a vision of the
supreme corruption of the most beautiful ; but, then, a
vision of row on row of pretty, childish forms, neatly

LETTER
XXI.

Uniformity

of type

among

Bosnian

refugee

children.

228

THE HOPE OF BOSNIA.

LETTER
XXI.

ranged on their small school benches, neither starved nor
naked ; of cheerful, fresh expressions — ^lashes quivering
with the breath of a newly-awakened intelligence, as I
have seen the tender sprays of a Bosnian forest stirred
by the April breeze; and a starlight of quick eyes
twinkling forth from those half-dreamy child faces, like
morning stars of a brighter life. Then one feels that the
hope of Christian Bosnia may not have set for ever !

APPENDIX TO LETTER XXI.

Virtual suppression of the Refugu Schools by the new Governor of the

Croatian Military Frontier.

I HAVE already, in the course of these letters, been forced to allude
to the hostile attitude which the Catholic and Magyatizing party in
Croatia have thought fit to adopt with regard to the miserable
Bosnian refugees who belong to the Greek Church.* Had I wished
to enlarge on this disagreeable topic I might have accumulated in-
stance after instance of the petty persecutions with which the
Catholic governmental faction in Croatia take care to keep alive
the enmity of their own Serbian subjects. I might have mentioned
personal friends, men of learning and position, whose only crime
was that they professed the Pravoslav religion and that they con-
sequently sympathized with the oppressed Serbian nationality beyond
the Turkish border, who have been dragged from their beds to prison
on the 'denunciation ' of a Government informer,* and who, after
suffering months of imprisonment without trial, and having had
their most private papers ransacked, have been contemptuously set

APPENDIX

TO LETTER

XXI.

^ Although, as I have already
pointed out, a large and respect-
able party amongst the Roman
Catholics of Croatia regard these
anti-Serbian manifestations with
abhorrence.

^ The technical name by which
these modem delatores are known
to the German-speaking bureau-
crats is vertraute Personen — ' con-
fidential persons.' The fear of
again compromising some of the

victims alone deters me from giving
the names and the fullest particu-
lars of these cases. The recent
instance of Militid, however, would
alone be sufficient to prove that
there is no tool of despotic govern-
ment borrowed by Mettemich from
Tiberius too vile to be made use
of by the Constitutional tyranny
of Hungary and its Croatian un-
der-kingdom.

230

SUPPRESSION OF MJSS IRBY'S SCHOOLS,

APPENDIX

TO LETTER

XXI.

Miss Irby's

schools

practically

suppressed

by General

Philip.

pcvid.

at liberty without being allowed so much as to know the specific
charges against them or even to &ce their accusers !

It might, however, have been imagined that even among the
Magyarizing officials of Croatia there would have been found suf-
ficient respect for public decency to restrain them from extending
their hostility to the two English ladies whose admirable work
among the refugees has been recorded in the preceding letter. Un-
fortunately, however, such has not been the case. After aimo3riiig
the two ladies with every petty persecution in his power, the new
governor of the Croatian Military Frontier, General Philippovid,
has practically suppressed Miss Irby and Miss Johnston's refugee
schools in Slavonia.

As the English ladies, in the pursuit of their work of relief on
the still more destitute Dalmatian frontier in the neighbourhood of
Knin, are not able during a good part of the year to superintend
their Slavonian schools in person, it results that they would never
have been in a position to keep them up had it not been for the
invaluable and self-sacrificing services of the professors of the Serbian
training school at Pakratz ih undertaking to superintend Miss Irby's
refugee schools in her own and Miss Johnston's absence. Professor
Josi<5 himself is a man of the highest character, greatly respected in
the country, and has been for seven years and more director of the
Serbian Preparandija for training schoolmasters at Pakratz. His
assistant (Professor Despotovid) bears the same high character. These
two gentlemen, whose only crime is that they belong to the Pra-
voslav and not to the Roman Catholic religion, have now been
prohibited fix>m superintending the refugee schools which English
charity had founded, and Miss Irby writes to me from Knin
(February i6, 1878), that under the circumstances the schools must
be closed and the unhappy Bosnian children turned adrift.

General Philippovi<5 has accomplished his object, and * Croatian '
and ' Magyar ' interests have made themselves respected ! But civilized
Europe will shudder at such deeds ; and the student of history will
point out that, as in the fifteenth century, Romish bigotry, by throw-
ing Puritan Bosnia into the arms of the more tolerant Turks, opened
the way for the Asiatic to the heart of Europe, so in this nineteenth
century that same intolerance bids fair to escort the Russians in
triumph to the Adriatic shores.

LETTER XXII.

POLITICS AMONG THE BOSNIAN BEGS.

Silent Revolution in Bosnia. Bosnia at present neither Ottoptan nor
Christian. Omar Pasha's re-conquest of the Province for Ostnanli
bureaucracy undone. The native Mahonutan nobility again in a
dominant position. Two parties among the Bosnian Begs. The Old
Bosnian party and its alms. Its leader — FHm Effendi, his history
and oppression of the ray ah. His tool the Dervish. Tortures applied
to rayahs. The Moderate party among the Begs. Their more con-
ciliatory attitude towards the Serbian element. Their repugnance to
Austrian occupation. Tendency among Bosnian Mahometans to
return to Christianity. Recent examples of this. Resolution of AH
Beg Djini^ to return with his whole family to the religion held by his
forefathers before the Turkish Conquest.

Begun at Berbir, Turkish Bosnia : November i8.

HE world obtains passing insights into Bosnian
affairs from two points of view, and from two
points only. Now and then the cry of the
rayah makes itself heard — even in the salons of
* society.' As to the most worthless of all aspects of the
question — the state of Bosnia as surveyed from the
standpoint of the present nominal governors of the
province, the Osmanli -bureaucrats — ^blue-books are
crammed with it.

But Christian Bosnia is at present mostly to be found
beyond its borders, and Osmanli Bosnia only exists on

LETTER
XXII.

232

SILENT REVOLUTION IN BOSNIA,

LETTER
XXII.

Bosnia to-
day neither
Ottoman
nor Chris-
tian.

A silent
Revolution.

paper. Bosnia to-day is neither Ottoman nor Christian.
As week after week the dominant race of the Empire
pays to Russia that tax which of all others it is least
capable of supporting : the blood-tax of Ottoman man-
hood — as, day by day, intent on the forlorn hope of
Orkhani^, Mehemet Ali calls off the few remaining
regulars that garrisoned this western comer of the Balkan
peninsula, till Northern Bosnia, at all events, is completely
drained of Ottoman troops — a silent Revolution, the pro-
gress of which I have already noted, has been working
itself out in this province. By the force of circumstances,
Bosnia relapses into the state in which reforming Sultan
Mahmoud found her at the beginning of this century.

That work of Ottoman re-conquest which Mahmoud
began and Omar Pasha completed in 185 1, is to-day
undone, with the exception of the mountain strongholds
where the insurgents still prolong, and will prolong, a
struggle ' deplored ' by diplomacy. That old ruling caste
of Mahometan Slavs, which up to Omar Pasha's time
had preserved - the feudal privileges and customs of the
mediaeval Christian kingdom, for which at the moment of
Turkish conquest it had sacrificed its creed — ^the Bosnian
Begs and Agas — have stepped once more into their former
dominant position.

If there was peace to-morrow ; if by some miracle
* the integrity and independence of the Ottoman Empire '
were preserved, and the hand of Fate averted ; if the *ring'
at Stamboul consented to introduce those reforms and
that impartial administration of justice of which tlie rayah
stands so much in need, the Ottoman would first have to
turn the forces which had escaped the Russians, against
the native, feudal, Mahometan aristocracy of Bosnia and
its retainers.

THE BEGS AGAIN MASTERS,

233

To-day the Begs are once more lords of Bosnia, and
they know it. Their views and resolutions command at
the present moment an importance which no other party
in or out of the province — neither refugees, nor Serbs still
resident in the towns, nor Roman Catholics, least of all
the alien Ottoman bureaucracy — can claim for theirs.
But of these views and resolutions, of Bosnia surveyed
from the standpoint of the Mahometan nobiUty, the world
at large knows nothing, or next to nothing. Haughty,
reserved, hating the alien in every form, conscious of
their strength, perhaps over-confident of it, biding their
time, they do not deign, like their subtle Osmanli rivals,
to manipulate European diplomacy and take consuls in
tow. My readers may remember that not long ago,
owing to a singular combination of circumstances, I was
able to present them with what, without great pretension, I
may call the only authoritative declaration of policy on the
part of the Begs that has as yet reached the European public.
The sc ions of the great Kulejiovid family, who expressed
their opinions to me so frankly at Kulen Vakup, could
not be persuaded that my visit was unconnected with a
desire on the part of the English Government to put
itself in direct relation with themselves as the rightfiilly
dominant element in Bosnia. They were frank to me
because I spoke to them without the intervention of
official Turks, in their communication with whom they
are naturally most guarded. Since then I have recently,
by less direct though trustworthy channels, obtained some
further revelations, as to the political attitude of the
Bosnian Begs, which can ^hardly be without their value
at the present moment, though it may not be advisable
to allude too precisely to the when, where, and how of
such experiences.

LETTER
XXII.

The Begs
again
masters of
Bosnia.

234

THE OLD BOSNIAN PARTY,

LETTER
XXII.

Twoparties
among the
Begs.

The Old
Bosnian

party.

The course of events has brought to light two distinct
parties among the Bosnian Begs. One of these, which
I may call the Old Bosnian party, by far the larger of the
two, is composed of the more fanatic and irreconcileable
elements among the Mahometan nobles. The other is
more moderate, and leans to a policy of conciliation
towards the rayah.

The ideal of the Old Bosnian party is Bosnia as it
existed before Omar Pasha succeeded in curbing that
haughty oligarchy which had succeeded under a
Mahometan guise in preserving to modern times the full
spirit and practice of feudalism. The alien Osmanli
bureaucracy which Omar Pasha sucjceeded in setting up
in Bosnia, and all the centralizing innovations of the
* New Turks,' including the sham Constitution, is to be
ruthlessly swept away. To the Sultan personally — ^the
Czar, as he is always known to these Slavonic Mahomet-
ans — this party is loyal enough ; but they are willing to
accept him rather as a suzerain than as a master, and
any Vizier whom he may appoint, as in the old days,
to be governor of the province must sink into his old
position as a shadow of a shadow. As to the rayah, the
reply given me by Mahomet Beg Kulenovid — like other
members of his family, an adherent of this Old Bosnian
party — faithfully reflects its inflexible determination. The
rayah is to remain a rayah still.

The man who is becoming more and more the
recognised head of this Old Bosnian party, and whose
influence throughout the length and breadth of the
province is at present greater than that of any other,
deserves more than a passing notice. In the last des-
perate struggle of the old Bosnian aristocracy against
Omar Pasha, which was fought out in the bare and

fAim effendl

235

mountainous angle of the province known as the Kiaina
or Turkish Croatia, the adherents of the anden regime
were headed by a certain Najib Aga.

In the battle of Bihacs, Najib Aga, with many other
of the principal Begs, fell into the hands of the Ottoman
commander, and was transported to Asia. The greater
part of his lands were also confiscated, but he was
afterwards allowed to return to Bosnia. There, however,
he again fell under suspicion, was summoned to Serajevo,
and, if report speaks truly, was there poisoned.

His son, Fdim, had been taken away in early youth,
and sent to Constantinople, there to be brought up as a
true Osmanli, and to be cut adrift from all Bosnian
associations. His teachers, to all appearance, succeeded
admirably, and F^im, now EfFendi, had become a most
promising specimen of a * New Turk,' — a man of the
salons^ affecting Parisian manners and costume, and
steeped in the newest corruption of Stamboul.

F^im Effendi might now be reasonably considered a
safe man by the Divan, and was allowed accordingly to
return to his native province and take possession of what
remained of his patrimony.

There is scarcely a rayah refugee from the country
round Banjaluka, where F^im resided, who has not his
bitter experience of the arts by which he now set himself
to increase that patrimony. This polished gentleman,
with his European fashions and easy, affable manner —
the very man to win a consul's confidence — stands con-
victed of more insatiable extortion and refined cruelty to
the rayah than any other tyrant landlord in Bosnia.
Fdim Effendi did not, indeed, ride * nadjak ' in hand
among his Christian serfs, robbing and mutilating, at the
head of Bashi-bazouk retainers, as fierce, fanatic Begs of

LETTER
XXII.

Film
Efftndi,

As a ' New
Turk:

FHfris
cruelty to
the rayahs.

236

FEIM'S TOOL, THE DERVISH,

LETTER
XXII.

FHnis tool,
the Der-
vish,

System of
false accu-
sations.

Tortures
applied to
rayahs.

the old school have done when the fit seized them or the
long-sufifering rayah turned recalcitrant

No 1 F^im Effendi had not gone to school at Stamboul
for nothing. The worst crimes that are laid to his charge
he accomplished by means of middlemen. His chief
tool in these transactions has been a certain Dervish,
Fezlia by name, who has all the Vakufs or lands belonging
to the principal mosque in Banjaluka under his control.
This man, like F^im himself, has gained his knowledge
of men and things beyond the limits of the province
where he now resides. He was bom in Fezzan, and has
visited most parts of the Ottoman Empire. A mutual
compact was soon struck between the two men. Feim
wanted land to exploit, Fezlia wanted patronage to enable
him to practise his extortions with impunity, and the
Christian rayahs of the Vakuf were pillaged between
them in the most barbarous manner.

Whenever a rayah seemed to have something worth
pillaging, the usual plan of these villains was to concoct
a false accusation, against him. The poor man paid what
he could to be let alone, but if the sum was considered
insufficient, the false accusation was turned to account,
zaptiehs were sent to pounce upon him, and the refractory
rayah was thrown into a Banjaluka dungeon. There at
least it might have been imagined the rayah found
himself in the hands of the officers of justice ; but it was
not so. In the cell itself a variety of tortures were
applied, with the alleged object of extorting a conf(»ssion
of the crime, but really to extract more money. One
of the most usual tortures in vogue with Film's apparitors
was to set the victim in a wooden cage which obliged
him to preserve a standing posture, and to leave him
there for days at a time, with heavy iron weights round

THE 'MEMBER FOR BANJALUKA:

2J7>

his neck. This torture, I am assured, is extremely pain-
ful, all the more so as during this time the prisoner is
without food. In Bosnia, as formerly in England,
prisoners are dependent for their sustenance on public
charity, and in Banjaluka, where the chief prison is
above a city gate, the prisoners obtain food by letting
down a basket through a hole in the floor, and whining
to the passers-by below.

I need not write in detail of other tortures applied
on the spot, in a more rough-and-ready fashion by the
zaptiehs and other instruments of our Effendi and Dervish,
of men * smoked ' in pigsties, or tied naked to trees in
the depth of winter, with a freezing douche of water
thrown over them at intervals. It is enough to say that
there was no form of cruelty and extortion known to the
old feudal lords of Bosnia that was not practised by
Fdim's agents. Meanwhile, this * perfect Turkish gentle-
man ' was amassing considerable sums, and with his
wealth was daily increasing his influence in the province.
Till the present troubles began he completely commanded
the confidence of the Osmanll governors of the province,
and was esteemed in every way a * New Turk.' The
troubles began, and F^im's attitude became more
doubtful. It was observed that his relations with the
native aristocracy were more intimate, but, on the other
hand, when the new * Constitution ' was proclaimed,
F^im showed that he at least was on the side of * en-
lightened reform ' by getting himself elected member for
Banjaluka, the scene of his oppressions and infamies.
F^im became * member for Banjaluka,' and as such might
be esteemed a friend of the new Ottoman Constitution.
But the troubles continued, the Russian war broke out,
the Bosnian Begs were beginning to awake to a con-

LETTER
XXII.

Tortures
applied to
iM^ahs.

The* Mem-
ber for
Banja-
luka:

238

THE 'MODERATE' PARTY,

LETTER
XXII.

FHm

assumes

leadership

of Old

Bosnian

party.

The Mode-
rate party
among the
Begs.

sciousness of their power. F^im began to lay aside the
mask. He ceased to be even nominally the ally of the
Osmanli alien ; he began to take the place to which
by birthright as well as by talent he was entitled as a
leader of the native Bosnian aristocracy, and to-day he
poses as the avowed head of the Old Bosnian party
among the Begs.

This Old Bosnian party is, as I have said, largely
leavened with religious fanaticism, and indeed, one of
its chief adherents, a certain Sarcher Beg Djinid, is
reckoned a kind of saint in Bosnia. He has built a
shrine for himself near Banjaluka, and is the prophet and
soothsayer of the party.

Thus the Begs, at whose head Fdim stands, adopt
an uncompromisingly intolerant attitude towards the
Christians. But recent events have been bringing to
light, even among the old Mahometan nobility of Bosnia,
a party more moderate in its views, less ^atical, and
inclined to take a juster view of the situation. It is the
happiest sign of the moment that this party among the
Begs — I may speak of it as the Moderate party — is
daily on the increase, though still by far the larger
number of the Begs are on the more irreconcilable side.
At the head of the Moderates stands a certain Djini<59 a
relative of the Mahometan saint already mentioned as
one of F^im's chief henchmen. The progress of this
more liberal party is due to a variety of causes. The
great impoverishment of the landlords, owing to the
flight of their Christian serfs beyond the frontier, and
the immense destruction of property ; the increasing
consciousness that Turkey is fighting a losing battle
against Russia, and perpetual rumours of the imminence
of an Austrian occupation of Bosnia, have convinced

OVERTURES TO REFUGEE SERFS,

239

many of the Begs that the old order of things must be
changed, and that it is impossible at this time of day to
change it by going back to the feudal rkgime which
existed before Omar Pasha re-conquered Bosnia for the
Ottoman.

There are thus many symptoms on the part of this
more moderate party of an inclination to seek some basis
of compromise, and compromise more especially with
the Serbian or Greek Church elements of Bosnia and its
border-lands. Begs near Berbir have been making private
overtures to induce their refugee serfs to return, promising
each * house community ' a dozen acres of land, to be
held in perpetuity, but demanding three days' service
weekly on the Begluk, or property of the lord. Return-
ing rayah refugees have, however, met such a fate lately
from the more fanatical among the Begs and from Turkish
officials that overtures far more liberal than these would
have no prospect of success. ^

There is no doubt that even the more moderate
among the Begs would preserve their old privileges if
they could ; but they begin to perceive that if they do
not set their own house in order, others will do it for
them. Thus there is no doubt that Djini<5 and his party
would, like the others, prefer that Bosnia should remain
in some form a vassal state of the * Ottoman Czar.* But
many of them are beginning to doubt the possibility of
the Sultan retaining even a distant suzerainty over Bosnia,
and are asking themselves the pertinent question, * If we
must bow before the Giaour, shall Bosnia be Austrian or
Serbian ? ' And to this question their usual answer is —
^ Bosnia shall never be Austrian ! ' An Austrian occupa-
tion and eventual annexation of Bosnia — which I for one
regard not only as the most probable solution of the

LETTER
XXII.

Overtures
to refugee
serfs.

240

REPUGNANCE TO AUSTRIAN ANNEXATION

LETTER
XXII.

Repug-
nance to
Austrian
annexa-
tion.

Rapproche-
ment
toward*
Serbs
among
Moderate
Begs.

present difficulty, but as the only solution within the
sphere of practical politics — is regarded by the majority
of Bosnian Begs and by all the orthodox rayahs with an
intensity of detestation which it is almost impossible for
the outsider to conceive of. As to the * orthodox' rayah it
is useless attempting to argue the question with him ! On
this subject they are all fanatics. * If Austria takes Bosnia,'
said one of the most intelligent among the refugees to me,
* Germans and Jews will get the land. There will be no
real freedom. If we must be slaves, we had rather be
the slaves of our own nobles ; they at least speak our
tongue. But Austria or Hungary would destroy our
nationality ; theywoulddousmoreharmin 50 years than
the Turks in 500.' ' We have a proverb in Slavonia,'
another Serb, a native of that Hungarian province,
remarked to me, * the Turk sucks the rayah's blood ;
our Government soaks ours away with cotton wool.'

An intense feeling of nationality, shared in Bosnia by
both Mahometans and * Serbs ' (though less conspicuous
among the more intellectually degraded Roman Catholics),
lies at the bottom of this repugnance to absorption by
Austro-Hungary ; and the natural outcome of this is a
tendency on the part of the Begs (the less fanatical, that
is, among them) to seek some kind of union with the
Serbian States — either Danubian Serbia or Montenegro —
as an alternative. I have evidence that in 1859 a most
remarkable convention was actually signed between the
Begs then desirous of freeing themselves from the
Ottoman dominion and the Slavonians and Croats of
Greek faith on the other side of the Save, then conspiring
against the hated yoke of Austria. What was possible a
few years since can hardly be impossible to-day.

It is, moreover, not only this national feeling, but a

BOSNIAN MAHOMETANS RETURNING TO CHRISTIANITY. 241

certain shrewdness of perception as to their own interests
as a caste, which lead the Begs to prefer union with Serbia
to union with Austria. They know well enough that
Serbia is too small and weak to reduce them to the level
of ordinary subjects ; they see the probability even that
Bosnia once tacked on to Serbia, Serbia would rather
become an appanage of Bosnia than the reverse. And
this correct instinct of the ruling caste seems to me to
be a fatal argument against such an arrangement, even
if Austro-Hungary were for one moment to permit. of it.
Before the discordant elements of Bosnia can be welded
into one whole — as a preliminary to the revival in that
sect-distracted country of any genuine national life — the
application of a very real force majeure, in which this
haughty, fatalistic, ruling caste should see the unmistakable
decree of Kismet, seems to me a primary necessity.
And that is precisely what Serbia cannot supply.

But the most striking symptom of the present tendency
among the Begs to make friends with the Christian
Mammon as the day of reckoning approaches is the
manifestation of a tendency to return themselves to the
faith which their forefathers abjured.

Elsewhere I have alluded to the possibility of the
Mahometan Bosniacs under certain circumstances return-
ing to the Christian fold. I have already introduced my
readers to a district once Bosnian and Mahometan, but
which, coming under Austrian rule, • has re-accepted
Christianity. We seem now on the eve of witnessing
such a re-conversion on a large scale in Bosnia, and,
extraordinary as the fact may seem, a careful study of
the history of the country will go far to explain the
phenomenon.

LETTER
XXII.

Serbia too
weak to an-
nex Bosnia.

Bosnian
Mahome-
tans re-
turning to
Christi-
anity.

That the
Bosnian
Nobles
prefer their
Caste in-
terests
to those of
Isldm.

Remark of
a leading
Beg.

BEGS INCLINED TO RE- ACCEPT CHRISTIANITY.

The nobles of Bosnia, whether Christian or Mahome-
tan, seem always to have valued their interests as a caste
more highly than the creed they professed. Their
tyranny has, on the whole, been more the tyranny of a
caste than a creed. At the time of the Turkish conquest
of Bosnia, the forefathers of the present Begs renegaded
for the most pait from a Puritan form of Christianity,
and accepted the creed of their conquerors rather than
sacrifice their possessions. There is, indeed, no prospect
of such a severe alternative being placed before the
Bosnian Begs at the present time, but there can be no
doubt that, even if it be for the sake of their social
position, many of the Begs, if they must bow before the
Giaour, will accept his creed. For them to-day, as at
the moment of Turkish conquest, the chief anxiety is as
to their position as a noblesse. Their rank secured, their
future, political and religious, becomes quite a secondary
consideration.

* Come Swabian, come Muscovite,' remarked old Beg
Grosdanvic the other day to a friend of mine, * I don't
care what happens. I have got my old rolls and patents
of nobility given my forefathers by our Christian kings,
and I shall be a Beg still ! '

No doubt the Begs have at different periods since
the Turkish conquest made great profession of their
Mahometan faith,, and Bosnia is the very Goshen of
Mahometan old believers. But I doubt whether this
religious Conservatism has not been more a weapon of
policy than an evidence of deep conviction. Most of
the nobles who at the end of the fifteenth century
renegaded to Islim, did so only as a temporary shift.
Like the crypto-Catholics, to be met with to-day by the

DECLARATION OF A BOSNIAN NOBLE.

243

thousand in Albania, they remained Christians, heretical
Christians, be it observed, at heart, though outwardly
conforming ; and many of the great Bosnian families
have not even at the present day lost this transitory idea
of their religion.

Coming events cast their shadows before them.
Some of the lesser Begs and Mahometan merchants have
already begun to get themselves baptized. A friend of
mine, a Bosnian merchant, perhaps the most prominent
among the refugees, has within the last few days received
visits on Austrian soil from five Mahometan merchants
of Novi and Priedor, who asked him to stand godfather
to them. He consented, and they have all been baptized,
changing their Mahometan names to Christian '; Hassan
being known henceforth as Milan, and so forth.

My friend also received a more important visit from
one of the most moderate of the great Begs, and an active
supporter of Djinid's party — Rustan Ali Begovid, who
resides near Banjaluka. My friend, alluding to the new
converts to orthodox Christianity, asked Rustan what his
intentions were, and whether he thought of being baptized.

* Not yet,' replied the Beg ; * but when the time comes
and the hour of Fate shall strike, I will do it in another
style. I will call together my kinsmen, and we will
return to the faith of our ancestors as one man. We
would choose to be Protestants, as are the English ; but
if need be, we will join your Serbian faith. Latins we will
never be ! If we go into a Roman Church, what do we
understand ? But if, on the other hand, we go into one
of your Pravoslav churches, we know what is said. My
family has never forgotten that they were once of your
faith, and they were made Turks by force. In my castle

R 2

LETTER
XXII.

Recent in-
stances of
re-accepta-
tion of
Christi-
anity ly
Bosnian
Mahome-
tans,

Declara-
Hon of a
great Bos-
nian Noble.

244

DECLARATION OI' A BOSNIAN NOBLE,

LETTER
XXII.

there is a secret vault, and in that vault are kept the
ancient Christian books and images that my forefathers
had before the Turks took Bosnia. I remember once
my father looked into it, then closfed it up and said " Let
them be ; they may serve their turn again." '

LETTER XXIII.

A BOHEMIAN STATESMAN ON THE EASTERN CRISIS
AND THE FUTURE OF ILLYRIA.

Prerogative position of Chesks among Southern Slavs. Conversation
with Bohemian statesman. His views on an Austrian annexation of
Bosnia. Austria and the Slavs. The attitude of Bohemia. My
reasons for wishing to see Illyria re-united under one sceptre and
Austro-Hungary merged in it. Desirableness of an autonomous-
Bulgaria. A Cheskian re-settlement of the Balkan Peninsula.
Anglo-Austrian alliance criticised. A Bohemian view of the
Magyar:*.

Prague : November 25.

OHEMIA is something more than the most
flourishing province of Austria. The Chesks
raay claim at the present moment to represent
something more extensive than the limits of their
historic kingdom. Although differing somewhat in language
from the Serbs and Croats, they are Slavs, and the most
cultured representatives of the family. The very points
in which they differ from the other Slavs of the South,
their well-defined geographical limits, their history, their
language, the fact that the higher grade of culture on
which they stand renders them superior to the religious
differences which still distract Serbs and Croats — all this
gives them a certain prerogative position among the
Southern Slavs. Prague'is the Slavonic capital of Austria,

LETTER
XXIII.

246

CONVERSATION WITH CHESKIAN STATESMAN,

LETTER
XXIII.

Prague.

My conver-
sation with
a Bohem-
ian States-
man.

Austrian
occupation*

just as Vienna is the German, or Buda-Pesth the Magyar.
Prague is the representative of something greater than
the official capital of the Empire represents. Vienna
may be a dead pleasure city, but Prague is throbbing
with national life. Prague is the eye of the Slavonic in-
telligence from the Adriatic to the Lower Danube, from
the iEgean to the Giant Mountains.

I find myself in the Cheskian capital, led there by a
desire to obtain the Bohemian views as to the possibilities
of the present situation, and especially as to the future of
Bosnia, from a leading Bohemian statesman. The ex-
pressions of opinion with which I was honoured may
have an interest, not only as coming from a statesman of
European standing, but as being a representative utter-
ance on the Eastern Question from the Cheskian point
of view ; and as my informant was desirous that these
views should be placed before the English public, I will
make no apology for giving my readers the substance of
my conversation. I have ventured to add my own share
of the dialogue, as I am not able to subscribe to all my
Bohemian friend's conclusions.

I had been alluding to the long postponement of
Austrian action on the side of Bosnia in spite of the com-
plete military preparations and of confident statements on
the subject made by distinguished personages. * Still,*
he replied, * you may regard it as a moral certainty that
Austria will occupy Bosnia. It is true that the Hunga-
rians — the Magyar dominant caste of Hungary, that is —
are dead against it, partly from a disinclination to do
an)rthing disagreeable to the Turks, partly from a fear of
new accessions of Slavonic strength to the monarchy.
But so far as Russia is concerned there would be no
opposition. The whole matter was settled between

THE CHESKS AND AUSTRIAN OCCUPATION

247

Austria and Russia long ago ; and you may rest assured
that the scheme has received the Russian sanction. I
cannot, of course, speak definitely about the arrange-
ment ; bat I believe there is a full understanding that
Austro- Hungary is at liberty to take the whole of Bosnia
and Northern Herzegovina up to the Narenta Valley.
The annexation of Bosnia is, and always has been,* a pet
object with our Emperor. On that point I can speak
positively from personal knowledge. And, after all, as
regards Magyar public opinion, it is true it runs very
strongly against the project ; but Magyar public opinion
is very liable to sudden changes. I don't think the
wishes of the Court will be seriously opposed in Hungary,
and with the King's weight thrown into the scale, and
Bosnia annexed to the Hungarian Crown, the measure
may suddenly become popular even among the Magyars.
You see the Magyar nobility is not so sure that it may
not find allies among the ^Mahometan aristocracy in
Bosnia; they still stand in much the same relation to
the Slavs this side of the Save as the Begs do to the
Bosnian rayahs. You have asked me what I think will
be the probable course of events. You have not asked
me what I, as a Chesk, as a Slav patriot, would prefer
to see. Frankly, I do not desire to see Bosnia annexed by
Austro-Hungary^. First, because, if it was annexed to the
Hungarian part of the Monarchy, the Magyars would
crush all nationality out of the country ; they are much
better hands than the Turks at doing that 1 Secondly,
because, if Austria annexed Bosnia, the whole expense of
the new administration would fall on our side of the
Leitha ; and what with road-making and railway-making
and generally developing the resources of the province,
the amount of capital that Bosnia would swallow up

LETTER
XXIII.

Will
Austria
occupy
Bosnia f

Cheskian
views on
the ques-
tion.

BOSNIAN FUTURE DISCUSSED.

LETTER
XXIII.

Mineral
and other
wtalth of
Bosnia
urged as a
reason for
Austrian
occupatwn.

Chesk view
that Bosnia
should be
Serbian.

would be enormous — far more than we are in a position
to afford.'

* But as to that,* I urged, * surely foreign capital will
come to your aid in developing the marvellous resources of
the country as soon as they are generally known. English
capital has only been deterred hitherto from working, for
instance, the rich quicksilver mines of Crescevo by
Turkish mal-administration. Just consider the wealth
that the two most civilized peoples that have had any-
thing to do with Bosnia — the Romans and Ragusans —
drew from it ; the Romans, if I remember rightly, got
50 lb. weight of gold out of those regions daily, and the
Ragusans in the middle ages paid 300,000 ducats yearly
for the lease of some gold-fields. And as to the Magyars,
they may have the will to denationalize Bosnia ; but have
they the power ? Their rule, on the contrary, seems to
evoke every latent spark of nationality on the part of
their Slavonic subjects.'

*They may not eventually succeed in crushing the
national life out of the Bosniacs,' he answered, * but we
know too well what it it is to suffer even a generation of
intellectual torture and political mutilation; and we can-
not wish the Bosniacs to endure such a fate, even for a
limited period. No ; Bosnia is a Serbian State, and
Serbian Bosnia should remain. Surely you, as an English-
man, ought to admit that the wishes of the population
should be respected ! If Bosnia is to be attached to any
State, she must be attached to Serbia.'

* But is it not in the interests of the Serbs and of all
Southern Slavs,' I asked, *that Bosnia should go to
Austria ? Would it not ensure the preponderance of the
Slav element in the Monarchy, and secure the future of
Austria as part of a great South Slavonic State ? '

BOSNIA TO BE SERBIAN OR AUSTRIAN i

249

* Oh, that is the old story ! As if we had not a
Slavonic majority in Austria-Hungary already. Believe
me, we do not need any new accession of strength to
assert our position. To-day, as yon know, we are
gagged ; but we can bide our time. Here, in Bohemia,
with three-fifths of the population belonging to our
Cheskian nationality, we are put in a miserable minority
at the elections by a manipulation of the electoral dis-
tricts which gives places where there are 30,000 Germans
greater representatiqn than other districts where there
are 100,000 Chesks. You know our resolve to hold
aloof from Parliament till this iniquitous state of things is
brought to an end. An " Opposition " on strike — that
must seem odd to English ideas ! But it may happen
that we know our own interests best. We can bide our
time. Austria has ill-treated us ; but Bohemia is too
rich a country to indulge in a revolt. We shall simply
wait, and when the time comes, as come it will, when
Austria has need of us, and an appeal is made to the
loyal Chesk nationality — well, we shall not respond.
That is alL And as to Bosnia, what new strength would
it give us ? A paltry half-dozen votes or so ! Certainly
no cultured minds to aid us in our struggle against Ger-
manization.'

* But anyhow,' I interposed, * half-a-dozen votes are
better than none ; and the question is not so much what
Bosnia is as what Bosnia may be. Besides, you do not
seem to reckon in the secondary effects of such a step
as affecting the prosperity and importance of Slavonic
provinces at present under Austro- Hungary. lUyria
was once a centre of European commerce. Siscia, Sir-
mium, and Salona were once world-cities ; but in those
days lUyria was under one Emperor. To-day, however,

LETTER
XXIII.

Self-con-
fidence of
Austrian
Slavs,

Commer-
cial

advantages
of an
united
Illyria.

2S0

WILL AUSTRIA BECOME ILLYRIAf

LETTER
XXIII.

Commer-
cial

advantages
of an
united
Illyria.

My wish
to see
Austria
merged in
Illyria,

Croatia and Dalmatia are cut off from the continent
behind them by political barriers ; their commercial
development is stifled by artificial means. With Illyria
some way re-united, your Croatian and Dalmatian
emporia may grow bigger than Vienna itself ; your pro-
vinces may become tenfold more populous ; the whole
centre of gravity of the Monarchy may change/

* There is something in what you say/ he replied ;
* but, on the whole, Bosnian commerce must flow mainly
into the Danubian commercial basin, and in a far less
degree towards the Adriatic. Belgrade rather than Siszek
seems to me to be the commercial emporium of the future.
There can be little doubt that the great line of communi-
cation between East and West will be a railway running
from Belgrade through Pristina and Salonica.*

* But the Siszek line,' I remarked, * is at any rate
begun ; nor does that consideration much affect the ques-
tion, for Serbia must of course eventually aggregate itself
to the rest of Illyria. The great necessity is that Austria
should become the nucleus of anew South Slavonic State,
embracing at least the whole Serbian area; that the
empire of the Hapsburgs should cease to be a geographi-
cal expression, and should become a nation ; that forced
— as it must be eventually by the Germans — to retreat
on the South and East, heterogeneous Austria should be
merged in a Slavonic Illyria. You, on the contrary,
speak of Serbia annexing Bosnia. Do you really suppose
that the Austro- Hungarian Government would tolerate
that for a moment ? '

* They may have to put up with it ! ' my friend replied
with warmth. * Rest assured that if Serbia were to annex
Bosnia to-morrow, Austria could not raise a finger to

|. prevent it ! How could Austria prevent it ? Declare war

ILLYRIA, BULGARIA, AND ENGLISH INTERESTS. 25^

against Serbia ? The Government knows well enough that
there are some things which the Slav majority of the
Monarchy would not tolerate, and a war against Serbia
or against Russia is one of them. Such a war would
mean the disruption of the Empire. If Austria does oc-
cupy Bosnia, it will be in virtue of an agreement with
Russia and with the Czar's permission. As to our Go-
vernment actively interfering against Russia, or any
alliance with the English Government for that purpose,
that is out of the question. If the foregoing considera-
tions were not enough, there is one all-sufficient answer
to such rumours — the Russo-German convention.'

* So far as we are concerned,' I observed, * it is hard
to see what interest we have in hindering the development
of South Slavonic States in the Balkan Peninsula. They
would become the surest bulwark against Russian ag-
gression on the side of Constantinople. Even were the
new State weak at first, it would be at least a better ally to
us than Turkey, for the simple reason tliat the Turks, as
in the case of the Bulgarian massacres, are liable just at
the critical moment to commit some revolting deed of
savagery, which turns the English people away from them
in shuddering abhorrence ! No, Lord Strangford and
Mr. Finlay, the two Englishmen who have made the
deepest study of those lands, were both agreed that the
establishment of a South Slavonic power was the only
barrier that could prevent the ultimate seizure of Con-
stantinople by Russia. And if Austria takes Bosnia,
and acquires a dominant position in the West of the
Balkan Peninsula, there will be no danger of Russia
domineering in an autonomous Bulgaria. A free Bulgaria
would be led by most obvious interests to lean on the
lUyrian Power to her West. I have even thought,' I added,

LETTER

xxiir.

The impo-
tence of
Austria.

Advan-
tages to
England of
rise of
South
Slavonic
power.

252

A CHESKIAN RE-SETTLEMENT OF TURKEY.

LETTER
XXIII.

Interests of

Southern
Slavs NOT
anti-
English.

A Christ-
ian re-
settlement
of Balkan
Peninsula.

* that at no distant date Stamboul itself might become
the Bulgarian capital. As it is, the Bulgarian colonists
have been drawing nearer and nearer to it every year ;
there is, or was, a large Bulgarian population in the city
itself; and over half the students in the most civilizing
institution in the place — the Robert College — were
Bulgarians.'

* God preserve Bulgaria from such a capital ! * he said.

* It would poison the whole State. I look upon Stamboul
as the Capua of empires ; it is the native city of the
Fanariotes, the gathering-place for the scum of Europe.
Constantinople may be a Bulgarian possession, but let
them fix their capital at Adrianople — anywhere but there 1
You are right in supposing that there is no danger to En-
glish interests in the autonomy of Bulgaria or other South
Slavonic States. It is the absurdest fallacy to suppose
that any of us are desirous of coming under the yoke of
Russia. It is you English, who, by supporting Turkish
misrule, have been simply making Russia a present of
paramount influence among the South Slavonic popula-
tions of the Balkan Peninsula ! What a marvellous
opportunity your Government has at the present time for
resettling the whole of the Balkan Peninsula on a durable
basis ! The whole matter might be settled with Russia in
half an hour. Bulgaria, Servia, Bosnia, Albania to be fi*ee
States, and Greece to be given Thessaly and half Epirus.
With Turkish dominion transferred to Asia Minor, the
question of the Bosphorus would settle itself ; the great
difficulty at the present moment is that one State holds
both shores of the narrow Straits, but with the Turks
only on the Asiatic shore the Straits would be ipso facto
neutralized. Your Government, however, will persist in
propping up the Turks.'

TRAVELS IN QUEST OF A * GOOD AUSTRIAN:

253

* Perhaps,' I said, ' it would be fairer to call our atti-
tude anti-Russian than pro-Turkish. England, as Lord
Beaconsfield once remarked, is " a great non-European
Power." Our Government seems to regard the question
rather from the Asiatic standpoint ; but for that very
reason we have little direct interest in the Balkan Penin-
sula itself. It is not so much because a free Bulgaria or
an enlarged Serbia would injure us that we fill the waste-
paper basket of Belgrade with diplomatic admonitions ;
we do it rather out of friendship for Austria. We say a
word against South Slavonic liberation on the Danube in
order that Austria may say a word against Russian
aggrandizement on the Asiatic side, where she has no
interests. And yet,' I continued, * though I have travelled
from one end of the Empire to the other, I have never
quite made out what " Austria " is. I have talked with
Germans, Magyars, Slavs, Italians, Viennese ; but a
" good Austrian— «« guter Oesierreicher^ I have nowhere
discovered.'

* Nor has anybody else ! ' he replied. * Your diplo-
matists are well enough informed as to the views of the
German and Magyar politicians of Austria-Hungary.
They see dualistic Austria as she is, and overrate her
power. They certainly do not command the confidence
of our party, of the Slavonic majority of the Monarchy.'

* I was speaking with a Magyar,' I remarked, * the
other day, and he seemed to think that very little count
need be taken of Slavonic opinion in the matter. In his
opinion the Slavs were quite an inferior race.'

* That is really a little strong even for a Magyar ! ' ex-
claimed my Bohemian friend. * Why, the greatest men
the Magyars can boast of were all foreigners by birth, and
mostly Slavs ; their greatest poet, Petrosy, is a Serb,

LETTER
XXIII.

Austria at
present not
a Nation.

Magyar
view of
Slavs.

Chesk view
of Ma-
gyars.

254

SLAVS AND MAGYARS,

LETTER
XXIII.

Magyars
and Turks
compared.

Want of
qualities
of govern-
ment

among
Slavs.

whose real name is Petrovid. Vambdry is the German
Bamberger. Kossuth was a Slovak ; his peculiar genius,
his enthusiasm, his whole character are Slavonic. The
Magyars have their high qualities, but they have produced
no literary talent. Like the Turk, the Magyar is Turanian,
and he has just the virtues and defects of the Osmanli.
I remember once a French traveller who had been many
years in Egypt telling me that the commonest Turk was
capable of commanding a regiment of Arabs or Egyptians.
Let him be never so ignorant, all that was necessary was
to give him an officer's grade, and he kept discipline and
command. The Arab might be a man of much higher
culture, of much higher mental capacity, but he never
made such a good officer as the Turk. Well, that opened
my eyes to a parallel. The Magyar is among the Slavs
just what the Turk is amongst these Africans and Arabs.
He knows how to command. A single Magyar can order
about ten Slavs. This inability to command, to govern,
to maintain discipline, is our chief defect as a race. Nor
will I deny the Magyar many social virtues. He has a
dignified and courteous manner, and he is hospitable ; so
is the Turk ; but, like the Turk, he is incorrigibly idle.
He has not the slightest aptitude for business. Most of
the great Magyar families are ruined — their debts are
notorious. Even the Hungarian State seems incapable
of controlling its accounts — witness the gigantic railway
swindles. It is this inherent disqualification on the part
of the Magyars for finance that was one of the great ob-
jections on this side of the Leitha to allowing them to
have their way on the " Bank Question." A Magyar
cannot even carry his own harvest ; he has to employ
Slovaks — a Cheskian race. The wealth of the country is
rapidly passing away from the ruling castes on these ac-

MAGYAR DOMINATION DOOMED.

255

counts. Wherever in Hungaty you see a well-kept farm,
you may be sure that the owner is either a German or a
Jew, or one of our people. There is a very large Bohemian
population now in Htmgaiy.

* The Magyars say — and there is hardly one of their
race that is not imbued with the idea — " We will either
govern an Empire or fall to the ground." Well, in nine-
teenth-century Europe masterful pride is not enough to
secure dominion ; the race which works wins. To-day the
Magyars are a small dominant caste governing a hostile
population. In gazetteers you will find that there are
5,000,000 Magyars in Hungary, and some 10,000,000
of other nationalities. These figures are untrue. The
Magyars are in reality an even smaller minority than
this ; but in the census papers every one who can under-
stand their language — be he Serb or Rouman, German or
Slovak — is reckoned in. The domination of that mi-
nority will die a natural death ; but the Magyars need
not fear that they will be ill-treated if they are merged
eventually in a Slavonic State. We are not a revengeful
race.'

LETTER
XXIII.

Magyar

domination

doomtd.

LONDON : PRINTED BY

SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE

AND PARLIAMENT STREET

BY THE SAME AUTHOR.

THROUGH BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

ON FOOT

DURING THE INSURRECTION, AUGUST and SEPTEMBER 1875.

With a Historieal Review of Bosnia, and a Glimpse at the Croats,
Slavonians, and the Ancient Republic of Ragusa,

Second Edition. With a Map and 58 Illustrations.
London, LONGMANS & CO.

OPINIONS of the PRESS,

'A walk through Bosnia last autumn, in the disturbed state of popular feeling,
with no guide but a map, and no protection but an autograph letter from the
Governor-General, subject to the annoyance of being stoned as a Giaour, and
scimetared by Bashi-Bazouks as a Servian incendiary, was an exciting enter-
prise. Mr. Evans is a describer of no ordinary power. We could not wish for
a fuller or more vivid picture of all the externals of Bosnian life, the houses and
dresses, the fauna and flora. A great part of the book is occupied with descrip-
tions of landscapes, and these are done with all the enthusiasm and knowledge
of an artist. . . . The book, as a whole, is one of the freshest and most
opportune and instructive books of travel that have been published for some
time.' Examiner.

'Mr. Evans has published a work which at the present time no intelligent
Englishman can overlook.' English Independent.

' This well-written, interesting, and seasonable book discusses the north-
western districts of Turkey in a scholarly and lucid style, with the pen of a
competent, if not a well-known writer, to whom description is clearly no hard
or irksome task, and who displays judgment and original thought in the
exercise of his literary calling. Pall Mall Gazette.

* In this rambling, scrambling, and altc^ether most delightful book, we have
the prose poetry of Christopher North in the best passages of his Noctes Am-
brosiatuB, , . . From an interesting historic narrative he passes on to deal
swashing blows at the tyrants of the Bosniacs and Herz^ovinians of a kind
that ought to please the soul of Mr. Freeman, to almost lyrical descriptions
of female beauty, or to pictures of intensely artistic scenery, the fidelity of
which would be acknowledged by Mr. Ruskin.' Observer.

* Whether you regard the book as one of travel only, or as one having a
special interest at this time because of its political bearings, it deserves the
closest attention. There is nothing in his descriptions of the penny-a-lining
style ; he writes only that which is necessary for the right understanding
of his subject, and he adorns it with an amount of information whidi is
as useful as it is pleasant to read. Mr. Evans has, besides, sound artistic
tastes and a ready pencil, and the result is that he gives you in the course of
his book little sketches of singular excellence. ... If for nothing else, the
book would be valuable for the introductory chapter, which contains an
historical review of Bosnia which is deeply interesting. It is a delightful book
in all respects.' Scotsman.

opinions of the Press — continued

. * Of this book we can say, as the Author does of Ragusa, '* it far surpassed
our most sanguine expectations.'' . . . Wherever he goes he carries with bim
the eye of an artist and the memory of an historian. His historical review
of Bosnia seems to us a model of what such an essay should be ; it sets the
conversion of the Mussulmatl population of Bosnia to Isldm in a novel and in-
teresting light. . . . Frenchmen are generally affected by prejudices which
may not unfairly be described as either sentimental or conventional, in £&vourof
Christianity in general and Roman Catholicism in particular. From such pre*
judices our English author is quite free. ... It would, perhaps, have been
difficult to choose a route which, without ever going twice over the same
ground, touches so many places interesting to the historian. . . . Descriptions
of the most interesting city of Ragusa, and the country round it, serve to close
the book with an artistic abruptness worthy of an ode of Horace.* Academy.

* It is not plain to us whether the ** Slavonic Mahometans " or the Christian
populations have Mr. Evans's most profound sympathies. His book is
valuable for its candour and calmness. . . . One of the most interesting
chapters in the book is devoted to the old military frontier, originally the out-
work of Christendom, ** the political sea-wall of her provinces, painfully re-
claimed." The old order of things, of which Mr. Evans gives a vivid descrip-
tion, which divided the border provinces among Slavonic house-communities,
. , . has not quite passed away. . . . For strangeness that excites the imagi-
nation there is nothing in this book of out-of-the-way travel to compare with
the expedition which the Author announces thus: — "To cross the military
frontier is to survey a phase of society so primitive that it was already antiquated
when the forefathers of the English sate among the fens and forests of the
Elbe-lands ; it is to wander beyond the twilight of histoiy, and to take a
lantern into the night of time. " The description of the still existing communistic
homesteads, illustrated by a very quaint drawing, is exceedingly interesting. . . .
When Mr. Evans diverges into antiquarianism we enjoy the book partictdarly.
He draws a beautiful picture of Siscia in her days of grandeur and commer-
cial importance. . . . The late Mr. Mortimer Collins, in one of his witty
vers de sociiti^ made a young lady, after some attention to the talk around her,
say to her partner at a ball, "Who is the Herzegovina ?" It was not an extreme
satire on the popular ignorance and indifference little more than a year ago.
Mr. Evans's work answers the question in detail, with lingering pleasantness
and dainty divergence into picturesque tracks and historical bypaths, for
which we thank him heartily.' Spectator,

' We cannot but congratulate Mr. Evans and ourselves that he has lived
to tell the tale.' Army and Navy Gazette.

* Mr. Evans's book is a very able, instructive, and readable one. . . .
That such a state of servility on the one hand and barbarous injustice on the
other should exist at the present day in Europe, is a disgrace to humanity.'

Morning Post.

* There is not a dry page in this fascinating and well-told story of travel.*

Whitehall Review.

* Mr. Evans does not hesitate to denounce the abuses and cruelties of the
corrupt Turkish administration. Yet he betrays no vehement hatred of Turkey,
and his only anxiety seems to be lest the Mohammedan party in Bosnia should
be unfairly dealt with in the event of a triumph of Panslavism. ... It is
pleasant to share the Author's frank enjoyment of the landscape, changing

opinions of the Press — continued.

from day to day, as he and his companion rambled up the fertile Bosnian valft,
stopping here and there to sketch an ancient ruined castle, a group of pilgrims
on the road or at the shrines, a view in some village street, a picturesque bit of
rock, or a woodland glade. The night they passed amidst the gathering of the
Roman Catholic worshippers at the mountain sanctuary near Comusina was
a piece of genuine highland life alone worth the toil of their journey on foot
from the banks of the Save/ Saturday Review.

*A volume so full of *meat,* of picturesque description and condensed
information, is a rare apparition among modem books of tours. At home
alike among the Grenzer communities of the Austrian borderland, the wander-
ing colonies of Wallachs and Bulgarians, the native Christians and old
conservative Mahometans of Bosnia ; ready to sleep in the open air and make
his way from point to point across the woods and water-courses of a genuine
Bosnian ravine, Mr. Evans possesses in a more than ordinary degree the
power of presenting to the reader, in a few graphic touches, the scenes and
inhabitants of these romantic lands.* Graphic.

* His descriptions of the beautiful landscape scenery, fertile plain, forest,
and mountain, which is traversed in going up the course of the river Bosnia,
and the sterner aspect of the Herzegovinian highlands, are very impressive. . . .
The night encampment of an assembly of Roman Catholic peasantry in the
highlands at the religious festival of Comusina is almost like a scene of
romance in " Waverley." * Illustrated News.

* This is a most opportune contribution to the geography, customs, and
history of a country which has suddenly emerged from the dimmest obscurity
into the full glare of European observation.' Guardian.

* Mr. Evans repaired last year to the least known and most neglected part
of Europe, though it lies within a few da3rs' journey of the course of the
Danube and the shores of the Adriatic. He took with him the qualifications of
an accomplished traveller — experience of foreign lands, a multiplicity of
languages at commaiid, a store of historical and antiquarian knowledge, even
of extinct sovereigns and races, a taste for natural history, which singularly
enlivens his pages, a keen eye for the picturesque, a ready pencil, a good
deal of humour, a bold heart and ready hand in emergencies, and, above all,
a stout pair of legs and a hardy constitution, which enabled him to tramp
over hills and valleys scarcely trodden by man or beast, to live on the food of
a savage, and to sleep as well on the hillside as in a Bosniak Han, Here are .
abundant materials for one of the most agreeable and instructive volumes of
travel that we have had the godd fortune to meet with, and Mr. Evans has
not failed to make the best of his opportunities. But his good fortune did
not end here. He started on his journey in total ignorance of what he was to
meet with. As he advanced into the country, the natural beauty of these
provinces, the simplicity of their inhabitants, their past history and their
present condition, under a weak and incapable government, awakened in him
sympathies amountingr to enthusiasm ; and before he left it a popular and
political movement had broken out around him, wWch seemed to be the
harbinger of brighter and better days to a downtrodden race, and which,'
as it has since turned out, was of the gravest moment to the Ottoman Empire
itself and to all the powers of Europe. As the traveller quitted Serajevo, on

a gloomy evening in August, the city stood out in lurid light above the mist

opinions of the Press — continued

and darkness that enshrouded its base, an emblem of its portentous position.
*' It is the begining of the end,'' said one of the foreign consuls to them. . . .
A year has passed, and the cloud has spread to the dimensions of a tempest.
... In this book we find a vivid and sympathetic picture of the origin of the
contest, drawn by an eyewitness, full of the just and generous sympathies of a
young Englishman.* Edinburgh Review.

* Many volumes of travel have been published which profess to describe the
aspects of those South Slavonic lands in which the insurrection against the
Turkish power has now for more than a year been aflame ; but we have not
met with any that deserves to be compared with the book which lies before us.
Mr. Evans combines a variety of qualities, every one of which contributed its
share to the excellence of his work, but which, even taken singly, are not too
commonly found among writers of tfavel, and in well -harmonised union are
still more rare. Sound scholarship, wide historical and archaeological reading,
an intimate previous knowledge of other Slavonic populations, and an appre-
ciation of the peculiar merits of the Slavonic character, prepared Mr. Evans for
an investigation into the state and prospects of Bosnia, which was the more
valuable because it had been projected long before even the first outbreak in
Herzegovina, and was carried out without any idea that the troubled scenes
amid which it was conducted involved the large political issues subsequently
apparent. But other travellers with similar advantages of knowledge and pre-
possession might have missed the most important of Mr. Evans's observations.
To have passed through the Slavonic provinces of Turkey in a travelling carriage,
along the main roads, from city to city, and to have been the guest of Pasha
after Pasha, would have been the ordinary fate of the English traveller, and
such an experience would have revealed little or nothing of the character and
condition of the rayahs. Mr. Evans, to the amazement of the Turkish officials,
and not a little to their embarrassment, made up his mind to penetrate across
the country on foot, and to see close at hand the common life of the Christian
peasants. In this purpose he persevered, in spite of the remonstrances and
menaces of puzzled and suspicious Turks, and his success has secured us a most
important mass of testimony bearing upon that phase of the Eastern Question
which Europe can no longer put aside. Moreover, a refined and educated taste
has enabled Mr. Evans to reproduce for the benefit of his readers the sensations
of pleasure aroused by grand or tender scenery, by historical associations and
dim suggestions of antiquity, by those beauties of nature in tree and flower,
and even insect life, that escape the careless eye. For Mr. Evans is something
of a botanist and an entomologist as well as an antiquary and a scholar. He is
as ready to call our attention to interesting mountain forms, to the delicate
beauty of the flora, and to the moths and butterflies that revel among these
blossoms, as to a trace of Roman inheritance in the form of a jar, or to an
apposite allusion in Claudian or Ausonius. His style, it must be added, is
vigorous and well sustained, often pleasantly touched with humour, and some-
times approaching to eloquence. Few indeed will take up Mr. Evans's volume
who will decline to read it through, and even those who feel no active curiosity
about Slavonic society, or who turn fix>m the Eastern Question as an interminable
tangle of inconsistent theories, cannot refuse to interest themselves in this
record of travel through scenes that have now obtained for themselves a
permanent place in history.* The Times.

57246?

JLI^ieili 1878.

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